New California law requires corporate boards include women

Gov. Jerry Brown.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

A new bill signed into law Sunday in California requires that all publicly traded corporations with headquarters in the state must have at least one woman on their boards of directors by the end of 2019.

California is the first state to enact such a law, which aims to close the gender gap in business, and a quarter of the companies meeting the law's criteria do not currently have women on their boards. "Given all the special privileges that corporations have enjoyed for so long, it's high time corporate boards include the people who constitute more than half the 'persons' in America," Gov. Jerry Brown (D) wrote.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.