Gender Equality on Boards: Reding or Not, Here it Comes

The gender disparity in the workplace has existed for so long that such a statement should surprise few, if any. Men have always seemed to hold more “higher-end” (board positions) jobs than women have held. However, exactly one year ago, Viviane Reding, justice commissioner for the EU, had asked companies to “voluntarily increase women’s presence on corporate boards.” Yet, after a whole year, the world has seen little change. According to the Huffington Post, 24 companies had promised to dedicate 30% of the board positions to women by 2015. To give a little perspective, Huffington Post also points out that “That’s up only slightly from just under 12 percent in 2010 and despite the fact that 60 percent of university graduates are now women.” In fact, the percentage of women on big company boards has actually declined from 3.4 percent (January 2010) to 3.2. Reding pointed out that women end up benefiting the company rather than costing it money; this statement is supported by the female and male boards who have a “56 percent higher operating profit compared with companies with all-male boards.”

On Monday, March 5th, Viviane Reding demanded a change. Last year she threatened to use quotas if she didn’t see a change, and now the Commission is considering such methods to increase the percentage of women on the boards. Reding states, “I am not fond of quotas, but I very much like what quotas do.”

Countries with quotas already, such as Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, are the countries that improved the gender gap. The Huffington Post states, “France alone was responsible for half the EU-wide increase, Reding said, bringing its own percentage to 24 percent,” when a year ago, only 12 percent of board positions were held by women. The New York Times points out that, “In Italy, one-third of a company’s board must be women by 2015 or the business will face fines of up to €1 million, or $1.3 million, and the nullification of board elections.”

It’d be wrong to assume that Reding’s initiative was unpopular and ill received. The NYT also says that “Ms. Reding said she had the support of many members of the European Parliament, which had already backed the need for legislation if companies failed to make sufficient progress through self-regulation” in addition to the “new poll showing that 75 percent of respondents favored legislation to balance gender representation on company boards.”

So from now until May 28th, “consultations” will help “determine the proportion of women that should be on boards under any E.U.-wide legislation” and the techniqualities of the quotas. Do you feel that Reding has so far dealt with the inequality issue in an appropriate way (was threatening quotas one year ago necessary and or the right thing to do)? Do you think these quotas will be enforced? Will such an attempt to create gender equality change society’s view of women?