UK: Revealed: The gender gap in British business

Submitted by Broadsword on Sat, 2010-08-14 01:43

Article here. Excerpt:

'The lack of women at the top of Britain's biggest companies is laid bare today as research by The Independent reveals the full extent of the gender imbalance in UK boardrooms.

When the former trade minister Lord (Mervyn) Davies was appointed to look into the problem last week, the coalition Government admitted that only 12 per cent (139) of the directors of FTSE 100 companies are female. But the situation is far worse.

Because several of them hold multiple positions, in fact there are only 120 individual women on boards, out of the total pool of 1,100 directors. And just 20 of them – 6 per cent – are the executive directors who run the company on a daily basis, compared with the 309 who are male.
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Elsewhere in Europe, the picture is very different. The leader is Norway, where at least 40 per cent of company directors are now women, thanks to laws introduced in 2006. The strategy is spreading fast. Spain has a 40 per cent quota, although it is not yet legally mandated. Italy, France, Finland, Germany and Sweden have all either set similar recommended levels, or have legislation going through parliament. And Europe's Fundamental Rights Commissioner, Viviane Reding, last month warned that unless more European boardroom seats are filled by women by 2011, she will impose a legal quota.
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Such is the antipathy for overt regulation that insiders expect Lord Davies's recommendations will follow the Australian example, using the "soft power" of lobbying efforts and mentoring programmes rather than the blunt instrument of a quota.

So far, the results look better. In the first six months of 2010, 31 women have been appointed to major companies' boards, compared with just 10 in the whole of last year.'

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Comments

No. I wonder if anyone has asked about the choices women make affecting their competitiveness for these positions-- I am guessing this is just being totally overlooked in these cases. Who cares if a guy has been busting a$$ for years to get promoted to the boardroom-- all that matters when quotas are instituted is the sex of a person who might be appointed, and justice be damned.

What happens when people who are not ready to assume these positions are suddenly in them? Well without mentioning names, I once had money in a gold mutual fund that for some reason was losing money while the others all were making it. (This was back in 2000, when Au was still appreciating evenly but not like it is today.) I looked up who the fund manager was and the answer was clear: He was from a very well-known family that runs a very large conglomerate of businesses- and he was only 22. I quickly sold the fund and went to another with a more verifiably-experienced fund manager, and I learned a lesson for myself there as well: check to see who is running the thing, not just what fund company owns it.

This is an example of what happens when you place people in positions they are not ready for: everyone loses and you set them up for failure as well. Political correctness and quotas lead not only to injustices inflicted on innocent bystanders but also set people and institutions alike for failure. To paraphrase MLK Jr.: Content of character, not color of skin-- and I will add to that last, content of pants as well.

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Submitted by Matt on Sat, 2010-08-14 18:06