Jessie Lin

A huge step towards the improvement of gender equality or a backlash of the rising economy?

Under a proposal by the European Commission, Europe’s listed companies will be forced to reserve at least 40% of their non-excutive director board seats for women by the year of 2020 or face some harsh fines. Countries like Britain and Sweden which currently have no hard limits are strongly opposed to this legislation. The legal adviser Pedro Oliveira at Business Europe also noted “One-size-fits-all quotas interfere disproportionately with the freedom of companies and shareholders to organise their own affairs.”

EU data showed that in January, women represented as little as 13.7% of board positions in large listed companies. Does this fact justify the legislation of quotas? Many will argue that this will merely cause another uprise of inequality, yet the gender imbalance issue has been present for so long that enforcing the legislation of quotas is the only effective way for companies to take an actual look at women. As France has already increased the women on board from 10% to 22% in 2011 and Italy from 3% to 33% by 2015, there should be no problem for the EU to reach the 40% quota by 2020.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/65f494e6-f5e7-11e1-a6c2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz28puSD0IY