女性，對于公司運營到底有著怎樣的影響？

There’s a remarkable lack of women in corporate boardrooms around the world. The European Union is considering a remedy that would require that 40 percent of a company’s directors be women. This may be a milestone for gender equality, but the question is, will it make any difference in how companies are run?

世界范圍內(nèi)的公司董事會中，女性身影的缺失都值得關(guān)注。歐盟正考慮進行補救，要求公司董事會成員中女性的比例達到40%。這也許是性別平等的里程碑，但問題是，這會對公司運營方式產(chǎn)生任何影響嗎?

The number of women directors remains stubbornly low. According to Catalyst, a nonprofit organization devoted to furthering women in business, American companies have the fourth-highest average of women directors in the world. The average board of a Fortune 500 company in the United States is 16 percent women.

女性董事的數(shù)量一直很低。根據(jù)致力于促進企業(yè)中女性成長的非營利機構(gòu)Catalyst的計算，美國公司的女性董事平均數(shù)為世界第四高?！敦敻弧访绹?00強企業(yè)董事會中的女性比例平均值為16%。

Among other Western countries, Catalyst finds that Britain is at 15 percent, Germany is at 11.2 percent, and Japan is near the bottom at less than 1 percent. [China is in the middle with 8.5 percent.]

Catalyst發(fā)現(xiàn)，其他西方國家中，英國的比例為15%、德國為11.2%，日本則接近墊底，只有不到1%。(中國居中，為8.5%。)

Nordic countries occupy the top three positions, with Norway being the world leader. Norway’s boards on average are 40.1 percent women.

北歐國家占據(jù)了前三。挪威居于全球第一，董事會里的女性比例平均值為40.1%。

That Norway is the leader is no coincidence. The country passed a law in 2003 to ensure that 40 percent of directors for all public companies were women. The proposed European Union law is likely to be based on the Norwegian one, and the idea behind both is simple: to take away any excuse for a company to avoid gender equality.

挪威排第一不是巧合。2003年，挪威通過法律要求所有上市公司40%的董事為女性。歐盟提案的相關(guān)法律可能就是基于挪威的經(jīng)驗。兩者背后的理念都很簡單：讓公司沒有逃避性別平等的任何借口。

The principles behind these laws are social and economic. The social element is based on the idea that the lack of women on boards is not a result of competency issues, but the clubby nature of these institutions. Lacking the ties to the men already on these boards, women are unjustly denied the opportunity to serve.

這些法律背后的基本原則涉及到社會和經(jīng)濟議題。社會因素基于的理念是，董事會女性身影的缺失不是能力不足的結(jié)果，而是出于這些機構(gòu)的幫派性質(zhì)。女性缺乏與董事會現(xiàn)有男性成員的聯(lián)系，因而沒有得到服務(wù)其中的公平機會。

But there is also an economic argument that is sometimes made to support the role of women on boards. The claim is that boards with women become better decision makers, increase companies’ profits and lead them to be more humanely run.

不過還有一個經(jīng)濟因素有時也用來支持女性在董事會發(fā)揮作用。這種觀點宣稱，有女性的董事會能做出更好的決策、增加公司利潤，并且?guī)ьI(lǐng)公司走向更人性化的運營方式。

These assertions are based on research that in general makes the unsurprising conclusion that men and women are different. Studies have found that women in the boardroom have different values, make decisions differently and engender a more cooperative atmosphere.

這些論斷基于的研究大致都得出了毫無意外的結(jié)論，即男女不同。有研究指出，女性董事持有不同的價值觀、決策方式不同，還營造了一種更和諧的氛圍。

There’s even an Israeli study that finds that the more girls in a school class, the better both boys and girls do on test-taking, and another one that finds that orchestras with a greater representation of women have improved organizational performance in the long run, at least as perceived by the players. That women can have a positive effect on men is something that anyone observing a third-grade class could agree on, and perhaps surprisingly, it seems to work in the boardroom.

甚至有一項以色列的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，學(xué)校班級的女孩越多，考試中男孩和女孩的成績就都越好。另一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，擁有更多女性成員的管弦樂隊，長期的協(xié)作表現(xiàn)將得以改善，至少樂手們這樣認(rèn)為。任何一個觀察過三年級班級的人都會同意，女性對男性有積極影響。也許出人預(yù)料的是，在董事會里也是如此。

That men and women are different may be true, but this still doesn’t mean that the more women there are, the better the company’s profits. In two studies of the Norwegian experiment thus far, neither were supportive of the role of women on boards. One study found that Norwegian firms declined in value, while the other found a decrease in profitability.

男女不同也許是真的，但這也不能證明女性越多則公司利潤越高。迄今有兩個關(guān)于挪威經(jīng)驗的研究，都未能提供支持女性擔(dān)任董事的結(jié)論。其中一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)挪威公司價值下降，另一項則發(fā)現(xiàn)利潤率下降了。

A few commentators explained the findings by noting that the mass appointment of Norwegian women at once led to younger and more inexperienced boards. The question remains, what happens when there is an equal weighting of women and experience?

幾名評論人士解釋這些結(jié)果的時候強調(diào)，一次性大量任命挪威女性讓董事會變得更加年輕且經(jīng)驗不足。問題還是存在，如果男女性數(shù)量和經(jīng)驗都一致的話，將會怎樣?

The couple dozen general studies on the role of gender in the boardroom are more mixed. They come to differing conclusions, some finding women to be a benefit, others a negative, only creating more uncertainty over the issue.

有關(guān)董事會性別影響的幾十項研究的結(jié)果更加含混。它們結(jié)論不一致，有些發(fā)現(xiàn)女性能帶來好處，有些則認(rèn)為是壞處。這只給問題制造更多的不確定性。

Because of this, the focus these days is on whether several women make a difference rather than having a token woman director. In this area, there is more support that women do have an effect.

正因為如此，最近的重點放在了幾名女性董事是否會造成改變，而不是力求有一名象征性的女性董事。在這方面，有更多的證據(jù)支持女性的確能產(chǎn)生影響。

One study found that in German companies with a board composition that was greater than 40 percent women, firm performance was positive.

一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，董事會中女性比例高于40%的德國公司的業(yè)績良好。

Another recent study, by Miriam Schwartz-Ziv of Israeli, found that boards with three women directors or greater were “approximately twice as likely both to request further information and to take an initiative” and have better performance.

另一項最近由以色列學(xué)者米麗婭姆·施瓦茨-齊夫(Miriam Schwartz-Ziv)所做的研究則發(fā)現(xiàn)，擁有三名及以上女性的董事會“有近兩倍的可能性要求獲得更多的信息和積極采取某項行動”，而且業(yè)績也更好。

While these studies are promising for advocates of women on boards, the bottom line is that the effect of women directors has yet to be established. Whether they add value just by their presence is undetermined because the number of women on boards remains low. The true test will be when there are a number of companies with boards comprising 50 percent or more women that can be compared against those with less. We’re not there yet.

對那些支持女性進入董事會的人士而言，盡管這些研究帶來希望，但女性董事的影響終究尚未得到確認(rèn)。因為女性董事的數(shù)量仍很低，無法確定她們是否只要存在就有貢獻。真正的考驗應(yīng)該是當(dāng)許多公司女性董事的比例達到50%或以上的時候，業(yè)績是否能與女性董事較少的公司相比。我們還沒有到那一步。

The European Union is seeking to fulfill this goal. According to reports, the European Union justice commissioner is keen to introduce its law in the coming months. France and Italy are instituting quotas at the 20 percent level, and India recently required certain public companies to have at least one woman director. But passage of the European Union law is not certain. Britain has already issued a letter protesting the effort, asserting that voluntary measures should be given time.

歐盟正試圖達到這一目標(biāo)。據(jù)報道，歐盟委員會負(fù)責(zé)司法事務(wù)的委員傾向于在未來數(shù)月內(nèi)引入相關(guān)法律。法國和意大利正在制訂20%的配額制度，印度最近要求某些上市公司擁有至少一名女性董事。但歐盟法規(guī)是否能通過尚不確定。英國發(fā)布了一封抗議信，強調(diào)自愿措施應(yīng)當(dāng)有寬限時間。

As for the United States, we’re clearly not there yet. Even talking about gender stereotypes makes many uneasy because it paints women and men with a uniform brush and doesn’t recognize that women and men are different depending on their individual qualities. And there is little likelihood of a quota system being enacted anytime soon.

就美國而言，顯然也相差甚遠(yuǎn)。甚至談?wù)撔詣e角色的刻板印象都會令許多人不安，因為它將女性和男性描繪為一樣的，不承認(rèn)女性與男性有取決于個人品性的差異。在美國，近期采用配額制度的可能性也很低。

Gender equality is one goal, but those who think that the number of women directors will reach a critical mass and change the way boards are governed are likely to be disappointed.

性別平等是一個目標(biāo)，但那些認(rèn)為女性董事將達到臨界數(shù)量從而改變董事會管理方式的人，可能會感到失望。

Even if it is true that women are different, the way boards are run in the United States may make these differences meaningless.

即使女性真的有所不同，但美國董事會運作的方式可能會讓這些差異變得無足輕重。

Boards are inherently behind the curve in decision-making and monitoring the all-powerful chief executive, something we saw in the years leading up to the financial crisis when boards failed to monitor their companies’ risky financial bets.

在做出決策與監(jiān)督手握大權(quán)的首席執(zhí)行官方面，董事會總是要慢上一步。我們在金融危機前的一些年里看到了這個現(xiàn)象，那時，董事會已不能監(jiān)督公司的高風(fēng)險財務(wù)賭注。

In addition, American directors largely come from the same class and business background, meaning these people can lull themselves into groupthink where diverse views are muted.

此外，美國公司的董事大部分來自相同的階級和商業(yè)背景。這意味著他們會讓自己陷入雷同的集體思維，扼殺多元化觀點。

Even if more women directors are added, they are likely to come from this same background and class as their male counterparts. And these dynamics will mean that when women join boards, they’re more likely than not to act just as the men already there.

即便有更多女性董事加入，她們也可能是來自和男性同事一樣的背景和階級。這些因素意味著，當(dāng)女性加入董事會的時候，她們更可能和男性的行事方式別無二致。

So if we are really serious about changing boards, we need to not only add new voices to the board, but find a way for the board itself to change.

因此，如果我們真心想改變董事會，我們不僅需要給董事會加入新聲音，還需要找到改革董事會本身的途徑。