Patricia Sellers on women in the boardroom - "Diversity is the buzzword du jour, but when it comes to corporate boards, there is more talk than action. Women make up only one out of six company directors. Does this affect corporate performance?" Fortune Magazine, "Women on Boards (Not!), October 15, 2007.

According to Sellers, 45 out of the S&P 500 companies have all-male boards. Who are the guilty companies? It turns out some big names appear to be exclusively "Men's Rooms" - Apple, Bear Stearns, Commerce Bancorp, Countrywide Financial, Juniper Networks, LSI Logic, National Semiconductor, News Corporation, Nvidia, Sempr Energy, Symantec and Zimmer Holdings, to name a few.

And most compelling, a recent study by Researchers at Catalyst found that "companies with at least three women directors performed significantly better than average in terms of return on equity (16.7% better), return on sales (16.8%), and return on invested capital (10%)."

Shareholders should wake up and shake up the corporate board rooms. We need to flush the "Men's Room" phenomenon and vote in more women.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive