One last word on Women On Boards: I really liked this piece from ForbesWoman and thought it worth sharing for it’s tips on HOW to create real change for gender balance (thanks Carol for sending the link!)  The articles links to Ernst & Young’s corporate governance database and recently launched report, Getting on board: Women join boards at higher rates, though progress comes slowly.  It’s top tips include focusing on advancing women at all levels: targeting talented women for
promotion and providing active sponsorship programs for women
to increase the future supply of talented female director candidates.  In
addition to these actions, following are some questions for boards and
audit committees to consider:

• Does the board think diversity should be a priority and does it
  have a strategy for building a board that is reflective of the market?
• Should the board open up searches to a more diverse pool of
  candidates or broaden search criteria to consider additional
  perspectives, skill sets and experiences?
• Has the board also considered setting term limits to force diversity of thought into the board?
• Does the company or the board identify qualified women to pursue as future directors or members of senior management?
• Has the board considered a woman for a committee chair position?
• Has the company or the board sponsored a woman in senior management to pursue a board position at another company?

Some good ideas here in the article.  Please let me know if any of them are being implemented in your organisation…