That's unfortunate, we've had a similar law on the books here in Norway since 2006. There where some noise about it at the beginning. But the consensus now seem to be that it is a positive.
There's obviously no consensus that it's positive. It's clearly, very obviously and very badly negative. It's blatantly sexist discrimination against men who have done nothing wrong, which is deeply immoral. It also many other subtle negative effects. It degrades the language and confidence in the rule of law because these laws that make people unequal are invariably presented as "equality" laws. It also makes it impossible to respect women on boards! Everyone knows they might be there only to satisfy a legal quota, not because anyone actually respected their abilities. I've actually heard quite a few women opine that they start out suspicious of women in powerful positions these days, because they know directly how easy it is to get there on the back of feminism, but they need competent services in that moment and not a job. If you want to create anti-female sexism where none should exist, forcibly replacing men for sexist reasons is a great way to do it across the board.
Is there a small part of the population that is against it? Sure, and there probably always will be. There is also a small population of xenophobes and racists, but they definitely aren't the majority.
I've actually heard quite a few women opine that they start out suspicious of women in powerful positions these days, because they know directly how easy it is to get there on the back of feminism, but they need competent services in that moment and not a job.
Just to fill you in, people are suspicious of people in powerful positions. Right now, folks that agree with you blame feminism. Previously, they'd say it was obvious that she sexed her way to the top. I'd not take any of this seriously.
I found 21.7K publications on Norway’s quota for women on corporate boards https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Norw...
Which are the most authoritative? What were their findings? (on actual company performance metrics, not just on the effect on gender representation on boards or executive search committees, or pay gaps)?
As to the California state law 2018/SB826 ('Women on Boards'), IIRC part of the reason the state acted was out of frustration that federal legislation on this topic had not happened despite years of discussion.
The positive, (as seen from most Norwegians view), is that there are now more powerful women in Norwegian industry and private sector. This is obviously an ideological view, and if you view more women in powerful position as of no or negative value. Then it isn't a positive for you.