The debate on gender quotas is still very present in Europe. Mainly because up to 30% of companies globally do not have a trace of female presence in management positions and there are only 8.5% of women presidents of boards of directors. As we have commented at Magnet on more than one occasion, the employment landscape not much has changed for decades and that now women study more than men. Come on, blaming it on a lack of candidates or a lower educational level is no longer working for companies.
For this reason, the European Union wants to put an end to this trend. How? With a mandatory law for all companies in the block. The most radical measure to date.
Measure. For the first time in its history, the EU has reached a political agreement on a law that obliges companies to have 40% female representation in non-executive management positions by 2026. That is, they will be obliged to report once per year on gender representation on their boards. Whoever fails to comply with the quotas for said year will have to face sanctions (introduced at the national level) that include fines or the annulment of their selection of directors. Of course, SMEs with up to 249 employees will be excluded.
Something is wrong. The situation in Europe does not look too good in terms of gender equality. In 2021, women only held 30.6% of management positions in the EU, with notable differences between countries, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality. France, for example, is the only country that would pass the filter of the new law right now, with 45% of the positions held by women. But others like Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Germany fall below 38%.
In Spain, according A study carried out by Grant Thornton in 400 companies from all sectors and between 100 and 500 employees, it was found that the presence of women in senior positions was 26%.
Environments where there are quotas are better. Plus, as Magnet has discussed in multiple articles, there are dozens of studies showing that more female reps have proven benefits. How to make it easier pursue important political proposals for citizenship but to which the previous representatives they weren’t paying attention. Also that labor behaviors are increased, such as, for example, Less conflicting or rivaling bosses with his partners.
Still other studies find that the most egalitarian boards of directors tend to be more profitable and they have some better financial results than those dominated by men.
But beware, it can also happen the other way around. In the same way that companies have to comply with quotas for women, institutions are not exempt from complying with quotas for men. A year ago, the controversy reached France but this time in a peculiar way. A fine of 90,000 euros fell on the shoulders of the Paris city council for violating the gender quotas established by law in 2018. But in this case, the failure was the reverse of what we expected: the mayor’s office put too many women in leadership positions. The idea of turning Paris into a “feminist capital” sounded great, but not even the recent legislative changes prevented it from backfiring on them.
What did the French law say in 2018 about gender distribution in the appointment of senior officials? That mayors’ offices in large cities could be punished if they did not respect the “equality” of men and women in appointments, ensuring a minimum of 40% to people of each sex. The idea of all this is, in the end, to have the same rights. On both sides.
Image: Unsplash