equality...

dolls' house
Originally uploaded by f2point4

Earlier this week I picked up a copy of Stylist, one of those freebies they hand out at tube stations. In it I found a surprisingly interesting article under the title 'Should women be fast-tracked to top jobs?' (pages 33-34 in the online copy), quoting Norway's apparently successful quota legislation from 2002, requiring listed company boards to consist to 40% of women.

I had a discussion about this with my significant other that nearly ended in an argument. He insists women should be treated as equals, not singled out for special treatment. I absolutely agree with him but unfortunately, women ARE being singled out currently as generally not suitable for the highest-powered jobs. Apparently, in the UK 62% of the FTSE 250 companies don't have a single woman on the board. Surely, that is nowhere near representative of the share of women in the population at large.

Although I personally see a prescribed quota as the least elegant and most easily abused instrument to redress an imbalance, if that imbalance simply won't adjust itself, it may have to be done by prescription until a higher share of women (replace with ethnic minorities, disabled, older employees - in fact, any under-represented group in any sphere of society) has become a more accepted status quo.

I agree that due to the fact that women have children, they are more likely the parent who is willing to give up a career to raise them, and thus there will never be the same percentage of women in high-flying jobs as their share of the poplulation of working age. However, this is a convenient excuse for people who use this argument to prove that the under-representation of women in career jobs is self-inflicted.

My opinion is that if after having the children women had the choice of leaving them in affordable and well-equipped creches and kindergartens open all day, preferably one provided by their employer in the same building that they work in, with qualified staff; if men got paternity leave and pay on par with women (another form of discrimination), then at least mothers would really have the choice between going back to work and staying at home. Currently, the choice usually simply isn't there.

But let's not forget that it is not only mothers who find their careers come to an early halt. I have read or heard often enough of women who have to watch their male colleagues being promoted despite having less experience and lesser qualifications than themselves. Maybe a ruthless jolt like a legally prescribed quota is exactly what's needed to break those ingrained patterns of by-passing women when a promotion comes up.

After all, Norway now has the highest percentage of women as board members in the world with 44.2% (higher than the legally required quota), and the Norwegian economy has not collapsed...