Binders Full of Women & Corporate Governance

The domain name bindersfullofwomen.com was snapped up less than two minutes after the instantly viral phrase left Mitt Romney’s mouth last Tuesday night. The winner was American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC. The group’s biggest funder is hedge fund billionaire George Soros, who made a $1 million donation earlier this year. (CNN, 10/17/2012) Will your CEO or board make the same gafe? Learn from Romney’s mistake.

By the time I was writing this on Friday, more 350,000 people had “liked” a Facebook page about what a politically dumb statement it was. @RomneysBinder and @Romneys_Binder started firing off satiric tweets before the debate even ended, and by last Wednesday morning, they collectively had more than 20,000 followers. Many of the tweets I saw criticized Romney for being out of touch. “Nobody uses binders anymore, ” was one example. Well, maybe they did back in 2003 when Romney took office in Massachusetts… before the iPad.

Maria Cardona, makes the major points in her article for CNN, Romney’s empty ‘binders full of women,’ 10/18/2012):

• He didn’t ask for them, the Massachusetts Government Appointments Project, a coalition of nonpartisan women’s groups, gave them to the Governor, unsolicited.
• The percentage of women in senior positions during Romney’s tenure declined from 30% when Romney took office to 27% when he left. It popped up to more than 33% after the new governor took over.
• He answered the question from the standpoint of a detached CEO who knew that he had to find qualified women to serve in his administration come hell or high water… He must have known he would be blasted if he didn’t do it.