Partner Article

Boardroom quotas on the agenda

The recent postponement of discussions around Viviane Reding’s proposal for a 40 percent quota of women in UK boardrooms is a positive and welcome step which shows a distinct lack of support for, and confidence in, her plans.

It’s no surprise that concerns have been raised about the enforced quotas. In our experience, very few people we speak to within UK PLCs want to see this legislation introduced, particularly many of the existing female non-executive directors we currently work with. Yes, there are considerably fewer women than men in UK boardrooms, but enforcing this quota will completely undermine the credibility of those women who are quite capable of gaining such a position on their own merit and not because of a tick box exercise.

While the Davies Report was certainly a powerful tool in encouraging healthy debate and highlighting the importance of diversity within business, it would be a sad day if the desire for greater female representation in UK boardrooms was enforced by either EU legislation or Government. What’s really needed is a fundamental culture shift, not a law change.

And let’s not overlook the significant improvements that have been made. Recent statistics from the Professional Boards Forum have shown that, for the first time, women are almost as likely as men to be appointed into a non-executive director role. In fact since early March, 48 per cent of non-executive appointments in FTSE 100 companies have been women.

The landscape at board level is definitely changing, but this must be allowed to happen naturally to ensure longevity. The introduction of strict quotas would not only cast a shadow over the progress that has been made so far, but would also undermine the work of executive search firms such as ourselves, as we would no longer be able to source and select candidates based purely on their suitability for the role, which ultimately has to be the most important consideration.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Elizabeth Usher .