PD Editorial: Road to equality hits another pothole
Every year, women pump an estimated $150 million in tax revenue into the United States economy, simply by having their period. While medicine and other basic necessities are rarely taxed, somewhere along the line, tampons and menstrual products were deemed a “luxury” worthy of taxation, much like cosmetics and pink razors.
“Basically we are being taxed for being women,” Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia told the Washington Post in 2016, the year she successfully shut down California’s “tampon tax.” Thirty-five other states maintain the biased levy.
It’s doubtful there were any women in the room when basic necessities for feminine hygiene were designated a luxury. Like so many important decisions in our history, it’s likely this one was made in a room full of people who all looked the same. People who have never dealt with a period personally don’t have the perspective to make such a call for those who do, which is why a woman’s voice was critically needed at that conference table.
It’s a problem California’s Women on Boards legislation sought to correct by requiring publicly held, locally headquartered corporations to have at least one female member of their board of directors by January 2022.
Despite the fact that women make up 50% of the population, in 2017 women comprised just 16% of corporate board members in the United States. The intent of the law was clear: Without the incentive of a hefty government fine, equality would continue to lag in corporate America. Undoubtedly bolstered by the bill, by 2021, 26.7% of board members were women.
Ever so slowly, we tiptoed toward progress.
That’s why it was disappointing when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis struck down the law on May 16 as unconstitutional. Although the verdict was not entirely unexpected. Legal minds have questioned the law since it was passed in 2018, as mandating quotas appears to violate both state and federal laws.
But companies would do well to heed the law’s intent, for their own economic benefit. An academic study of large companies reported in the Harvard Business Review in 2012 found that “when Fortune-500 companies were ranked by the number of women directors on their boards, those in the highest quartile in 2009 reported a 42% greater return on sales and a 53% higher return on equity than the rest.”
Beyond the profit margins, boards with women tend to make fewer high-risk decisions, and end up more efficient, according to a report published by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Not to mention, as the report said, “Women earn 57% of bachelor’s degrees, over 62% of master’s degrees, and 53% of degrees such as PhDs, medical degrees, and law degrees in the United States.” That’s a supernova of brain power that leaves the room when women’s voices are silenced.
This law, while flawed in its legal reasoning, was on point in its ultimate aim: Women deserve a seat at all tables, anywhere decisions are being made. Without the backing of the state, women are again at the mercy of a male-dominated system.
It evokes the words of the late, great Shirley Chisholm: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”
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