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  3. The usual arguments for adding women directors are that diverse boards are more creative and innovative, less inclined to "group

The usual arguments for adding women directors are that diverse boards are more creative and innovative, less inclined to "group

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问题     The usual arguments for adding women directors are that diverse boards are more creative and innovative, less inclined to "groupthink" and likely to be more independent from senior management. Numerous studies show that high proportions of women directors coincide with superior corporate performance. But there is little academically accepted evidence of a causal relationship. It may be that thriving firms allow themselves the luxury of attending to social issues such as board diversity, whereas poorly performing ones batten down the hatches.
    Women do seem to be particularly effective board members at companies where things are going wrong. A 2008 paper on the impact of female directors by Renee Adams and Daniel Ferreira of the University of Queensland and the London School of Economics found that bosses of American firms whose shares perform poorly are more likely to be fired if the firm has a relatively high number of women directors. On average, however, the paper concluded that firms perform worse as the proportion of women on the board increases. There is certainly no shortage of companies capable of producing stellar results with few or no women on the board.
    Nor is there any doubt that in many cases low female representation also reflects a broader lack of meritocracy (rule by merit) in corporate culture. In France, for instance, interlocking board memberships are common. Women, and many other deserving businesspeople, are excluded from the system. Emma Marcegaglia, head of Confindustria, Italy’s main business lobby, says the dearth of women on boards and in management mainly reflects a controlling male elite at the top of business, the members of which have hardly changed for the past 30 years.
    But what most prevents women from reaching the boardroom, say bosses and headhunters, is lack of hands-on experience of a firm’s core business. Too many women go into functional roles such as accounting, marketing or human resources early in their careers rather than staying in the mainstream, driving profits. Some do so by choice, but others fear they will not get ahead in more chauvinist parts of a business. Getting men to show up at every board meeting—another effect of having more women on boards—is all very well, but what firms really need is savvy business advice. Yet according to the European Professional Women’s Network, the pipeline of female executives is "almost empty": women occupy only 3% of executive roles on boards, compared with 12% of non-executive ones.
    That suggests that the best way to increase the number of women on boards is to ensure that more women gain the right experience further down the corporate hierarchy. That may be a slower process than imposing a quota, but it is also likely to be a more meaningful and effective one.
By citing the examples of French and Italian business, the author intends to show that
选项 A、women can’t be integrated into the interlocking board membership system.
B、male elite domination is common and justifiable in today’s business world.
C、the absence of women on boards shows a lack of cultural belief called meritocracy.
D、the reason why women can’t reach the boardroom is lack of management experience.
答案C
解析 定位到第三段，这两个例子是为了说明女性董事的低比例反映了企业文化的a broader lack of meritocracy，故选C。A项过于绝对，低比例不代表没有，故排除。男性精英主导企业高层很common“普遍”但不justifiable“合理”，故B项错误。这两个例子都没有提到女性因缺乏管理经验不能进入董事会，排除D。
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