Dec. 18, 2020
Dear team SEC, I am writing in support of SR-NASDAQ-2020-081 to advance board diversity and enhance transparency of diversity statistics through new proposed listing requirements. People of color, women, and LGBTQ indiviuals have been unfairly excluded from economic opportunities for far too long. This concerns me because the lack of representation of Nasdaq company boards has implications for innovation, safety, and access and often negatively impacts populations that are underrepresented in the workforce. For example, facial recognition software misidentifies people with dark skin, which has resulted in misidentifying law-abiding citizens as criminals and human beings with dark skin as gorillas. The first version of an app designed to track health conditions did not include health factors experienced by women, such as tracking menstrual cycles. Firms with female directors on their boards announce high-severity recalls 28 days faster than all-male boards. These and other concerns that adversely impact marginalized communities could have been identified during the development process with a more diverse team. I believe that greater representation on corporate boards will better position companies to develop a more diverse workforce, which will help avert these issues in the future. Therefore, I implore you to adopt SR-NASDAQ-2020-08 to advance board diversity and enhance transparency of diversity statistics through new proposed listing requirements. Thank you for your time, Laura Gluhanich