https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/the-fiscal-strategy-of-the-feminist-left-fines-and-ultimatums/
It’s old news by now. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, has laid down the gender law, stating at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the investment giant will not “take a company public unless there’s at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women.” The scuttlebutt is that the investment bank is trying to redeem its “vampire squid” reputation, cleaning up the fallout from the notorious 1MDB scandal implicating seventeen former and current Goldman executives. In addition, the firm is obviously catering to the “social justice” trends of the day, with its emphasis on so-called “diversity”—women, gays, people of color—at the expense of straight white males. As William Sullivan writes in American Thinker, what we are witnessing is “an openly discriminatory policy to pacify the woke mobs.” The new news would have to do with whether Goldman Sachs’ largest competitors, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, decide to follow suit.
Solomon goes on to claim that “the performance of IPOs where there’s been a woman on the board in the US is significantly better than the performance of IPOs where there hasn’t been a woman on the board.” This avowal is meant to function as justification for its clearly prejudicial policy by appealing not only to conventional sentiment and presumably “better governance” but to fiscal considerations, higher profits and overall improved performance, “help[ing] to move the market forward.” Woe betide an all-white, straight male Board, regardless of fiduciary competence and market effectiveness.
California Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson is an emphatic ally, having concurred with former governor Jerry Brown’s bill “making California the first state to require public companies to have at least one woman on their board of directors to advance gender equality.” Corporations, she declared, “will be more profitable” once they diversify their Boards of Directors and hire women. As reported in The Mercury News, “The legislation would mandate that all publicly traded California companies have at least one woman on the board by the end of 2019. By the end of 2021, it calls for at least two women on boards with five directors. At least three women will be required on boards of companies with at least six directors. Companies that don’t comply will be fined $100,000 for their first violation.” Jackson gushed: “This is a giant step forward for women, our businesses and our economy.” Companies would be “more successful, more productive, more profitable” when they add women to boards.