"The solution to Britain's laddish boardrooms"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Deutsche Bank's Josef Ackermann's deliciously impertinent comments that having women on company boards would make them more feminine, more "colourful and more beautiful" has caught the world on the hop and both sexes gasping at his gall.

In Germany, Silvana Koch-Mehrin of the FDU-EU told Handelsblatt: "If Mr Ackermann wants more colour in the executive committee he should hang some paintings on the wall."

Speaking from Oslo, Benja Stig Fagerland, the businesswoman who helped the Norwegian government to get half of its board positions filled by women, said she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She decided to laugh, adding: "Although there are a lot of men using this pretty argument to hide their fear that there are some bright women coming into business who are challenging their competencies."
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He made the remarks while being asked his view on Germany's proposal for a mandatory quota for women on boards. German ministers want 30 per cent of executive positions in the country's biggest companies to be filled by women, beginning in 2013; it's a move which the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, says she's against but the opinion polls show it has popular support. At present, only 2.2 per cent of executive positions are held by women in DAX 100 companies. But, tearing away the headlines, what Mr Ackermann actually said was far more interesting than the hype and should endear him to womankind, for he also said that having more women on boards is good for the "bottom line". And it's this fact, that more women on top does impact the bottom line, that has given this latest drive for more women in business some serious traction.'