*By Bridgette Webb* Corporate boards are often much smaller than the companies they serve, but their importance shouldn't be underestimated, said Ăsa Regnér, UN Women's deputy executive director. "Boards influence people's lives, so it's really important who is on those boards," Regnér said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. That is perhaps why California just passed new legislation that requires public companies in the state to have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019. By 2021, a minimum of two women must sit on boards of five or more; three, when boards have more than six people. For Regnér, it's about corporate America leading by example. "I think these kinds of legislation are normally really good," she said. It's important "to ask people to actually shape up and do something about the injustice that we see." But the law didn't sail through without opposition. Many argued it's not the government's right to dictate a company's board, and others argued the law may prioritize gender over other critical kinds of diversity ー like race and ethnicity, for example. Regnér disagreed. "There is already a quota going on, but it is an informal quota which favors men with a certain background," she said. "I don't think there is a contradiction to other backgrounds, this is one step I don't think \[demographics\] should fight each other." For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/%20Fostering%20an%20Unstereotyped%20Culture).

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