Saturday - February 26, 2011

Government quota threat to firms that fail to appoint 25% female boards.

How appropriate in this case, the default color here is ‘red.’ Jeesh.

Is anyone here against women achieving success in business? Against being treated fairly? I guess I’m really asking if this kind of quota is really justified.
It seems arbitrary. Why not 30% or 25.7% Where does the commissar get his figures from?  And I think the lady with the reply to this has it right.  There will be ill feelings with regard to merit or gender.  I recall losing out on a job right after a serious push in affirmative action. It was more a trainees kind of thing although I had some slight training already.  It was at KFI in LA, many,many years ago. Thing was, the guy they hired never showed up on time, had no real interest and ... the station couldn’t sack him at the time. Once or 2wice he didn’t even show up for work at all.  I didn’t really mind too much at the time because I wasn’t planning a career as a studio engineer anyway. Not that I’d have turned it down. 

Is it okay to to use quotas to make up for or try and balance past acts that denied jobs to ppl? 

This guy thinks so and holds the club to batter business.

Government quota threat to firms that fail to appoint 25% female boards
By GERRI PEEV

British companies are facing the threat of compulsory female quotas if they fail to ensure a quarter of their board members are women by 2015.
The threat will be made by Lord Davies – the former trade minister appointed by Business Secretary Vince Cable to examine why many top firms have no female directors.
His conclusions will be unveiled today and are likely to infuriate many business leaders at a time when firms are struggling to survive.
Lord Davies is expected to tell companies that they are in the ‘last chance saloon’ when he demands that 20 per cent of board members of the top 350 FTSE companies should be women by 2013.
The target will move up to 25 per cent by 2015. His research found huge resistance to the idea of compulsory quotas, with just 11 per cent of firms backing them.
One idea is that the targets will initially be voluntary but companies will be expected to have to explain to ministers why they haven’t hit them.
City ‘superwoman’ Nicola Horlick yesterday heaped pressure on the Government by coming out in favour of quotas.
Miss Horlick, who has started her own fund management firm and has brought up six children, said there was ‘no choice’ but to push companies to that position.
She said: ‘Generally, I do not favour positive discrimination as I believe very strongly that people should be chosen on merit for any job.
‘However, our public companies show no desire to be more inclusive of women and so I see no choice other than to push them in that direction.

‘Having had four daughters, it really saddens me that there are still underlying prejudices against women.
‘I am not a feminist and, as I say, I believe in meritocracy, but sometimes you have to create rules initially in order to give certain sections of society a chance.’
Lord Davies, a former boss at Standard Chartered, said recently: ‘If companies don’t take a radical change in attitude, and hire more women at the top, then we will have to introduce quotas.’
He is expected to announce that shareholders and headhunters will be expected to abide by a new code of conduct to look for more women on their boards.
Chairmen will also be urged to be more ‘adventurous’ when appointing non-executive directors.

more at the source here

ANOTHER VIEW

Take women on their merits, or not at all
By Cristina Odone

As I walked into the headquarters, I couldn’t resist a little smile: I’d made it. I was a member of the board. The Catholic Herald was hardly a global media empire, and I was not being paid six-figure sums to attend, and contribute to, the quarterly meetings. But I felt my status as a media professional had been confirmed: eight men and one woman felt I had something to offer their shareholders.

Imagine, though, if I were walking into those high-ceilinged rooms in the knowledge that I was filling a quota. Imagine if I knew I had been selected not because I had been a successful editor, knew a thing or two about advertising promotions, or even because I boasted a great contacts book; but because the company had to have a certain proportion of women on its board. I’d feel a token woman, not a successful one.

This is precisely what will happen to women if Lord Davies, the Government’s business adviser, has his way. The former trade minister wants to make it compulsory for boards to consist of 25 per cent women by 2015. Lord Davies’s proposal is bad for business and worse for women.

Instead of feeling that they have a contribution to make, women on the board will feel their accomplishment has merely been to tick a box. Instead of bursting with ideas, they will be terrified of being caught out: given that they have been chosen for their gender, not their ability, they’ll feel insecure about their professional qualifications. How can they prize their achievements when they are not sure that they were appointed on merit?

READ THE REST

Posted by peiper     on 02/26/2011 at 05:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Politically Correct B.S. • work and the workplace •  
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