Women In The Board Room

A government-commissioned report on diversity has recommended that by 2015 a quarter of Great Britain’s top business roles should be held by women, this infers that diversity at the board table can help to make boards more effective, and less of a boys club. But is this recommendation a positive move encouraging and empowering women, or does it devalue women’s achievements by making a conspicuous show of their place in business like a false monument to equal opportunity?

In 1991 Kathleen O’ Donavan was made the first female finance director at the British Tyre and Rubber Company, this was so significant that Julia Finch at the Guardian describes this as a turning point, marking a generation of women who could have it all, families and a fabulous lifestyle, while still storming the business world. 20 years later though, women still only make up 12.5% of board members in the UK's 100 biggest firms, with only five of these having a female chief executive. Finch argues that quotas are the only way to force change, because without them “there is just too big a risk that the next 20 years will be just like the last 20”. However, we disagree with this assessment. An arbitrary number of women in top business roles will not improve the boards, the company, or the individual. We would argue however that organic growth within the company is key, and top business roles should be awarded to the most suitable candidate, regardless of gender.

While we concede that the underrepresentation of women in the upper echelons of business is an issue for wider debate. Perhaps the answer is more encouragement at lower stages in the career ladder. At an academic level women achieve higher qualifications than men, but once in the workplace, a disparity seems to occur which distances men and women in terms of achievement. The Institute for Leadership & Management explain that it is not a lack of ability or opportunity, but a lack of ambition which causes this, but perhaps the over representation of men at higher levels dissuades women from wishing to join these ranks. In a study by the LSE just last week, it was predicted that the amount of female entrepreneurs are set to double in the next 30 years. This is a dramatic prediction, and we hope that this can be achieved, but naturally and organically, with appropriate encouragement for those women, who would flourish in top positions regardless of gender, without resorting to imposing quotas.

Is introducing an arbitrary quota demeaning to women? Does it make economic sense? Contact us, and let us know what you think about this topic. Tweet