Male non-executives are opposed to quota for women in boardroom
CHAIRMEN and non-executive directors are strongly opposed to the idea of new quotas on the proportion of women in the boardroom, a survey revealed yesterday.
Fewer than one in 18 chairmen believe a quota would be helpful, the survey claims, while seven in 10 directors say it would either make no difference to the firm’s performance, or make it worse.
The survey showed a stark difference in the popularity of quotas between men and women. Nearly 45 per cent of female board directors said that quotas would be helpful, compared to just 4.02 per cent of male directors who felt the same way.
The onus is on firms to encourage more women onto boards, according to Ken Brotherston from private equity recruiter Directorbank, which helped conduct the research.
“It’s hard to believe that in a country that’s home to 32m women, we should need legislation and quotas to find another 100 senior women capable of filling board-level roles in the FTSE 100,” said Brotherston.
“If companies don’t want to be micromanaged and dictated to by government, they need to do more to solve the problem themselves.”