Sunday, 8 June 2008

All across Europe companies have been told to put more women in the driving seat, or be penalised. The ruling has been a huge success — but what does it say about sexual equality?

3 comments:

BrusselsLout said...

This report's a load of bullcrap.

First of all, there is no such legislation in the EU that forces companies to take on specific quotas of women. Positive discrimination is illegal in the EU. This only applies to Norway, and Norway is NOT in the EU.

Yet the title makes a clear reference to all of Europe (although it rabbits on about Norway in the text).

"While another 2007 report, by the international management consultants McKinsey, looked at 89 top European companies and found those where women were most strongly represented on both the board and at senior-management level outperformed others in their sector in return on equity and stock-price growth."

And here, consultants McKinsey really do take the cake. Women are not "represented" on boards. They are EMPLOYED, presumeably, by the companies they work for.

What this proves is that the people chosen for these senior jobs -- whether male or female -- have collectively done a good job. It does NOT prove that this was because some of them were women! And it does NOT prove that employing a bigger proportion of women would improve things.

Typical journalistic rubbish.

BrusselsLout said...

I thought Times was a conservative newspaper?

But the Conservatives have also gone feminist!

David Cameron jumped on the bandwagon a while ago. He wants to close the mythical pay gap. And he's appointed Theresa May to do it.

Ah, politics. Votes, votes, votes. No principle. All parties know what the public wants to hear, and they are all trying to beat each other to it.

Libertarian said...

anonymous said: "As for Norway - just wait till they run out of oil, it will be very interesting."
Excellent observation! Mollycoddling women is an expensive practice.