Womenomics

 Following the lead of countries like Spain, France, Italy, and Belgium, the European Union is considering legislating quotas for women directors on boards.

Quotas are a drastic step, especially in Europe, where men overwhelmingly run companies, and boards of directors are also almost entirely male. Just 13.7% of large-company directors and 3.2% of presidents and chairmen within the EU were women as of January, the New York Times reported in March. That’s after a program designed to boost women’s selection for boards, instituted last year, garnered little support from companies.

Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, has been pushing for EU-wide quotas. She noted in a March press release that in 2010, the EU’s largest public companies had women represented on boards just 12% of the time. She is also urging companies to sign a “Women on the Board Pledge for Europe,” which commits them to have a board made up of 30% women in 2015 and 40% in 2020.

“It confirms what I always believe about change: that it goes from the ‘unthinkable’ (quotas are unthinkable) to the ‘impossible’ (not in our country) to the ‘inevitable’ (the sky does not fall and actually quotas turn out to be a good thing),” Liswood said in an email to The Wall Street Journal.

On the other hand, there are a lot of people – including women – who are firmly opposed to enforcing gender quotas on corporate boards or don’t think quotas will get the job done.

I am solidly behind this initiative.

Source: Wall Street Journal