THR Women in the Boardroom two

At the same time, the responsibilities also have increased. "In the old days, management would say: 'Here's our strategy. Stand up and salute,' " says Franklin. Now "it tends to be a much more dynamic, collaborative effort on strategy." And she has seen women become heads of committees on governance, audit and compensation.
"This is not your father's Oldsmobile, as that commercial goes," says Hobson (wife of George Lucas). "This is a new day." There may be an old-boy network at work on some boards, she says, but not the ones she's on. "I was a person in Chicago," she says. "I didn't have cronies. This idea that I'm a golfing buddy of [someone]? I don't even golf."
Says Hammer about serving on the IAC board: “Barry Diller chooses people who aren’t afraid to talk. He expects people to voice their opinions — if necessary, loudly.”
Even as times change, former Disney Media co-chair Anne Sweeney was advised by friends to be wary about becoming a token when she was choosing which boards to join after she left the company in January. (Before that, Disney policy precluded her from serving on boards of other public companies.) "There were a lot of boards that approached me that clearly just wanted to get a woman fast," she says. When Netflix CEO Reed Hastings invited her to join his company's board, she asked him why. "He said, 'Because of the company you've been running and because of your track record.' I thought, 'That's the right reason.' " In March, Sweeney became one of three women on the nine-person Netflix board.
Shari Redstone was the only woman director when she joined the board of National Amusements, her father's theater chain and the holding company for Viacom, in 1992. She also was the only woman when she joined the Viacom board in 1994 (before Viacom and CBS split into two companies). It was daunting, and not only because of her gender and because her background was in law and not in business. "I had to prove myself because I was my father's daughter," she says. Without speaking specifically about Viacom or CBS, the 61-year-old Redstone adds: "I do think in many instances there's a higher standard for women. It may not be forced upon us, but we take it on ourselves."