The German government coalition has completed its bill which introduces mandatory quotas for representation by women on the supervisory boards of publicly traded companies. The bill mandates that 30% of these positions should be held by women by 2016. Companies that fail to meet this requirement will have to leave the positions in their supervisory boards unoccupied.
According to the German Minister for Family, Manuela Schwesig, there is no need to worry about a shortage of qualified female candidates. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was originally against the quotas, today sees it as an important step to start a cultural change in the workplace.
The government is going to approve the bill at its meeting on 11th December 2014. The subsequent parliamentary approval should be a formality. The quotas for women in Germany will apply to approximately 100 publicly traded companies and about 3,500 other companies. In addition, companies will have to publish their goals in the area of increasing the number of women on their boards.
80% of all the board positions in the largest German companies are currently occupied by men. As far as the supervisory boards, women hold 17.4% of the seats in the top 160 companies listed on the stock exchange. Management board positions are occupied only by 6.1% of women.
Similar regulation in Europe have been introduced in Norway, the Netherlands and Italy. There are also increasing efforts to introduce women quotas for all companies listed on European stock exchanges. The leading figure in the struggle for the introduction of quotas in Europe is former EU Commissioner for Justice and current Member of the European Parliament Viviane Reding.
What do you think about quotas?
-kk-