Studies by a BBC News show in May discovered that less than
a third of the UK’s most influential jobs are held by women. This sparked a
large debate and a lot of controversy, with calls to the European Union to
debate the matter.
EU Commissioners are preparing to go into lengthy talks
about the issue of what is perceived to be international institutional sexism. There
are already proposals on how to remedy the situation, with one of the more
drastic ideas to make it mandatory for companies to reserve 40% of their board
seats for women. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding [pictured] will present the female
quotas proposal in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
This debate comes after the European Parliament criticised
the European Central Bank for their lack of female candidates on the executive
board. The European Council had recently posted Yves Mersch candidacy to the
opening. The European Parliament pointed out that this would leave the ECB
executive board all male until the end of 2018. A parliamentary committee
passed a resolution 21 votes to 12, with 13 abstentions, calling for the withdrawal
of the candidacy.
The UK has one of the highest rates of female board members
on FTSE 100 companies, with 16%. The government has demanded that the largest
listed companies must have a minimum of 25% of female directors by 2015.
Opponents to a mandatory quota claim that voluntary targets
and continuing efforts to change attitudes would be a more effective and
long-term resolution to the problem of a male-dominated executive population.
Even with a positive decision at the debate this Tuesday, it
would be a while before we saw quota laws begin to take effect on EU companies.
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