Would legislation forcing to appoint women directors on board serve the purpose?

As per the provisions of Section 149 of Companies Act 2013 and compliance with Clause 49 of listing agreement it has been mandatory to appoint at least one woman director on board latest by 31^st March 2015. There has been research by BNY Mellon, the wealth and asset management firm, that economic power and corporate governance policy of an organization are the key factors which give shape to gender diversity on the board of an organization. Research has been made after studying data collected from a sample of 1002 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 list of 2013 which included businesses from 41 countries on 6 continents. It has been found that majority of corporations believe that placing of a women director on board by way of legislation will not serve the purpose of socially as well as economically empowering women. Placing of woman directors on board by the fear of complying legislation will not even lead to compromise of board’s formation but will also create hurdles for the women who are deserving candidates for the position. Countries which have highest levels of female economic power are Australia followed by Norway and Denmark whereas United States ranks 6^th and Britain ranks 9^th.