Gabrielsen’s focus has not been on gender equality. His interest is in “the fact that diversity is a value in itself, that it creates wealth.” He is part of a movement has led to a law that requires all listed Norwegian companies to have at least 40% of women on their boards.

Despite much outcry about the law, research findings show that companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams perform better financially than groups with the lowest female representation. The Norwegians have therefore made diversification mandatory, on the basis that  increased profits can be, and are, achieved through diverse boards, and that a company’s primary responsibility is to act in the best interests of its shareholders by maximizing profits.

One board chairman commented: “Now we have much better preparation before board meetings. You don’t see Board members opening their working papers in the elevator on the way to the meetings. The quality of decision making has also really improved.”

A Norwegian researcher, Mariel Hood, has done research to show that female participation has also created younger, more educated and more innovative boards.

In New York, Ilene H. Lang, a Harvard MBA, has shown how a lack of gender diversity hurts business, and how profitability increases with gender-diverse management teams and boards. Her organization has recorded jumps of 34% to 60% in profits, in  transparent and verifiable studies, when gender diverse teams have been created.

Peter Collett, a British psychologist, has studied diverse-gender teams, and analyzed why they are more effective.  His findings shows that mixed gender teams are more collaborative, broader thinking, take big picture positions  (as opposed to getting into minutiae), and regularly review contextual factors. His research shows that such teams are much more likely to encourage contributions from all group members than are single-gender team.

There is one limiting factor when bringing women into management teams or onto boards. A single woman is less effective on bottom-line metrics. It is much more effective to bring several women into the group/ This avoids isolating, stereotyping and therefore limiting this economic source of profitability and wealth. The women do not need to have board experience to create the wealth results. Hence the Norwegian legislation.

Sweden is in the process of introducing legislation to follow Norway’s example.

For details of numbers of women directors in various countries, follow the European thought leadership updates, e.g. http://www.egonzehnder.com/global/thoughtleadership/hottopic/id/78402633/article/id/11900485

The cost, to both women and organizations, is high.

Research proves that when women do ask for what they want, they do not do so as clearly, quickly or as often as men do. GenX and GenY women are following in the footsteps of their Boomer and Traditional predecessors in this pattern.

Women also tend to think that what is offered (“what is on the table”) is all that is available. Men draw on their socialization (which includes things like being taught how to slip the Maitre d’ a few bucks for a better table) and assume that their wants and needs might be met if they speak up, irrespective of what seems to be on offer.

Organizations suffer. Their valuable women work and wait for rewards or options, then one day, *poof*! They’re working for your competitor or running their own small business, and you’re saying “why didn’t she TELL me she wanted that position, the same salary as John, that title, a new computer screen, a more flexible schedule, a space heater? It would have cost so little … a tiny fraction of what this is costing us now!”

Linda Babcock, Co-author of “Women Don’t Ask”, admits that those who ask, often get. She describes how she, herself, gave more resources and opportunities to men in her department, while she was researching the way women are socialized to wait for rewards, and why women don’t imagine possibilities outside The System. She did this because men asked.

Great read: “Women Don’t Ask” (by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever) has some great strategies for managing men and women who are valuable assets to your organization, but do not ask clearly for what they want. It’s also a must-read for working women or parents of daughters.