California’s efforts to get more women on company boards are toothless, patronising and quite possibly illegal

Apple already has two women on its board of eight. All it would have to do between now and the end of 2021 is add one more. Will that really move the needle?

Might the plan inspire companies to hire 'token' women just to comply with the letter of the law? (Getty/iStock)

I often think of California as the home of the contemporary American Dream. From the Gold Rush to Google, Hollywood to hippy culture and "Arnie" to Apple; if any place in the US has the chutzpah to catapult us into the future – technologically, culturally or socially – America’s most populous state (whose motto, by the way, is “Eureka”) is it.

California is arguably the capital of liberal America. Earlier this year, laws were introduced allowing licensed dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana to anyone aged 21 and over. Local law enforcement officials are (under most circumstances) not allowed to cooperate with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on deportation cases. Unlike in other states, officers are not allowed to ask about a person’s immigration status.

In the workplace, most Californian employers must provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected parental leave. The state’s minimum wage, at $11 an hour for companies employing more than 26 people, is also a fair bit higher than elsewhere. If you consider yourself to be “progressive”, California’s probably not an awful place to live.