YOU WOULD THINK that getting corporate boards of directors to achieve gender balance was an issue addressed — and answered — a generation ago. And you would be wrong. But the pendulum may finally be swinging in favor of adequate representation of women — and their diverse perspectives, values and ideas — on corporate boards. Boardroom diversity is now — finally! — viewed as a top business imperative, and many companies enthusiastically embrace a “different is better” corporate culture.

With five women on its 11-person board, Alaska Air Group recently won the WomenCorporateDirectors Foundation’s WCD Visionary Award for Leadership and Governance of a Public Company. Alaska also won the first-ever Governance Award in Seattle Business magazine’s Executive Excellence Awards program this year.

A group of Pacific Northwest business leaders, which formed an onBoarding Women program two years ago, is pushing to have women make up 30 percent of corporate boards in the region by 2020.

DEFIANT DISPLAY: In March, the investment management firm State Street Global Advisors installed a statue named "Fearless Girl" in New York's financial district. The work by Delaware artist Kristen Visbal stares down Wall Street's famous charging bull — calling attention to the lack of women on corporate boards of directors.

“We want to make sure the Pacific Northwest stays cutting edge on this issue, as we have in so many other ways from technology to biotech to the various social causes that have kept Seattle forward thinking,” says Lucinda Stewart, a Seattle-based recruiter for the executive search and leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart and cochair of onBoarding Women. “We decided to lock arms and do something about it.”

The diversity buzz is noticeable. OnBoarding Women boot camps are underway in Seattle. Local, national and global studies espousing the benefits of boardroom gender diversity come out almost weekly. Industry trade groups, nonprofits and universities, including the University of Washington, are rolling out training and mentoring programs.

They all share the same goals: to redefine how boards are governed, and to ensure visionary, diverse representation that better reflects the marketplace.

It makes perfect sense. Women account for nearly half the American workforce but make up an average of 19.9 percent of S&P 500 corporate boards — 18 percent in Washington state. As well, women are the world’s most powerful consumers, responsible for up to 85 percent of all purchases. Still, Fortune magazine recently reported that, as of 2016, 24 Fortune 500 companies had no women on their boards.

“Public boardrooms don’t look like the average consumer,” says Erin Lantz, VP and general manager of mortgages at Zillow Group. Lantz, who recently was appointed to two corporate boards after graduating from Seattle’s onBoarding Women program, adds, “You want your company to reflect the people you are serving.”

WASHINGTON COMPANIES seem to be getting the message slowly but surely. Tableau Software recently added its first female board member and, in 2015, Expeditors International of Washington added its second. In Washington state, the presence of women on boards has risen from 14 percent in 2014 to 18 percent in 2016, according to Stewart.

Earlier this year, Starbucks said it would add three new directors to its board, including its fourth female, creating one of the nation’s most diverse corporate boards. With these additions, the Starbucks board will grow to 14 people, be 29 percent female and 36 percent ethnic minority, and include a range of ages, from millennials to baby boomers.

“I’ve tried to create an environment within the board that would be culturally similar to that of the company,” says Howard Schultz, the company’s founder and chairman.

Going the high-profile route is another way to call attention to the importance of having qualified women in the boardroom. In March, Expedia Inc. added Chelsea Clinton as a director, making her the third female on a 14-person board.

As today’s business landscape increases in complexity, executives realize the importance of having directors with differing backgrounds to ensure the making of sound decisions and creation of strong oversight of senior management, says Ed Thomas, Seattle managing partner of Deloitte, the accounting and professional services consulting firm.

Thomas serves as cochair of onBoarding Women with Lucinda Stewart and Stewart Landefeld, a partner in the Seattle law firm Perkins Coie. He believes diverse experiences and views are critical to handling emerging issues like cybersecurity, social media, international markets, analytics and recruiting new generations of talent. Without diverse representation, Thomas says a board “could miss having a [finger on the] pulse on the trends and demographic changes” that affect corporate strategy.

“We [Deloitte] have seen firsthand how greater diversity in gender, background, experience and thought results in more effective boards, boards that ask the tough questions, look beyond usual solutions and constructively challenge management,” Thomas adds.

Is 30 percent female representation by 2020 doable? Does it even matter?