Women likely to remain rare in boardrooms

It's no surprise there's a dearth of women in America's corporate boardrooms, especially so in Silicon Valley. What is surprising is that it may well take a generation to solve the problem, experts in the field are now saying.

``Let's put it this way,'' said Ann Peckenpaugh, president of Larkspur's Board Search Partners, whose clients are primarily valley companies. ``Global warming is happening faster.''

Recent research illustrates the scope of the challenge. A study by the Graduate School of Management at the University of California-Davis found that slightly more than half of California's 400 biggest publicly traded companies have no women on their boards, including Apple and Yahoo.

And the valley is slightly worse than the state as a whole; while women make up 8.8 percent of directors in California, they hold only 6.5 percent of board seats at the 103 largest Silicon Valley public companies, according to the Davis research.

That's not likely to improve soon, despite the efforts of organizations such as the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives of Palo Alto, which helps corporate boards identify qualified female director candidates, and the national InterOrganization Network (ION), which advocates for women's advancement in business.

Silicon Valley's culture, focused on innovating at breakneck speed, may be largely responsible for the sluggish embrace of female directors, according to some observers.

``It's an issue of maturation,'' said Ellen Hancock, a longtime technology executive who served as both chief technology officer of Apple and chief executive of Exodus Communications before more recently co-founding Acquicor, an umbrella company that buys other technology businesses.

``Many public companies in the valley are very young and remain much more focused on growth than on diversity,'' Hancock said.

`People wear blinders'

It's not Machiavellian, said ION president Toni Wolfman. People just aren't terribly imaginative. ``People wear blinders,'' she said. ``They think about who they talk with all the time, who they play golf with.''

Change is happening, albeit slowly, thanks to growing awareness of the issue. The forum for women entrepreneurs, for example, recently introduced a program called BoardMatch that Chris Melching, the forum's president, likens to a dating service. ``We pair a company with an ideal target with our extensive membership base'' of female Silicon Valley executives.

Since BoardMatch's launch in November, the organization has worked to fill six seats and successfully helped place one woman on a board.

It's a slow start, but a start, said Professor Katrina Ellis of UC-Davis, one of the authors of the study. She points out that of the board seats that have opened up in Silicon Valley over the past year, roughly one-fifth were filled by women. ``Companies need a bit more prodding, but it's a slight, encouraging shift.''

Ultimately, women helping women may make the biggest difference.

``Women can be very supportive of bringing others onto a board,'' said Hancock, who invited two women onto her board while at Exodus and continues to regularly recommend women to key board appointments.

Such steps make a difference, according to Peckenpaugh, who says the biggest handicap for female executives today is -- no surprise -- their lack of board experience.

That will change -- someday. ``It's hard to be optimistic,'' she said, ``but we'll have a broader array of really well-qualified candidates as time goes by.''