Under a bill signed into law Sept. 30 by California Gov. Jerry Brown, publicly traded companies headquartered in California must appoint at least one woman to their board of directors by the end of 2019 or face a penalty, according to CNN Money.
The law, which was passed by the California legislature in August, also requires companies with five directors to add two women by 2021 and companies with six or more directors to add at least three women by the end of the same year.
While this is the first of such law to be implemented in the U.S., similar measures that set a quota for female representation on boards are common in European countries.
The measure will affect a number of California companies, as one-fourth of public companies in California do not have any women on their boards, according to the report.