By Kathy Graham
So, Germany’s government has decided to introduce a mandatory quota where boards of listed companies that have more than three members include at least one woman. I can’t possibly be the only person who believes this isn’t a good thing.
Men and women aren’t interchangeable parts. Equally educated, doesn’t mean equally qualified, nor does it mean an equal fit. Men and women are different. Men and women often follow different life paths. That’s not bad or good…it simply is.
Replace “woman” with “short”, “tall”, “black”, “old”, “young”, “brunette”, “ginger”, “blue eyes”. “brown eyes” etc, it makes just as much sense. None.
I believe in merit and that companies have the right to pick the individual who is the best fit for them at the time of hiring, without the added pressure of having to hire female, hire black, hire disabled, hire short, hire tall, hire two spirit binary fluid, hire young, hire old, hire male, hire refugee, hire (insert identity politics candidate here).
I believe in equal access, not equal outcome. Constantly pairing us up against each other in these faux couplings of black v white, brown v black, yellow v white, female v male, young v old rich v poor, high school v college/university, white collar v blue collar, etc, is divisive and doesn’t help improve us as individual, nor as society.
There are significantly more men being passed over than women.
Yet, nobody ever talks about the qualified men who don’t get the senior management jobs. Nobody ever talks about the countless men who don’t become the CFO, CEO, CTO. Nobody ever talks about the men who don’t make it on the board.
If a man gets passed over for a CEO job, what does he do? He can choose to stay in a Sr VP or VP role and bide his time until retirement. Or he can look for a CEO role at another company. Or he can start a new company where he’s the CEO/ Or he can become a consultant. Or he can retire and volunteer in his community. Or some other thing.
Now, replace “man” with “woman” and replace “he” with “she”. Women do the exact same thing as the men who got passed over.
Mature high powered women and men tend to hire those who are competent and a good fit for the job within the constraints of budget and resources available.
So, if the high powered women who get passed over, a) settle, b) get CEO role elsewhere, c) start their own company, then where is the push for more women here and more women there coming from? Because that push isn’t organic, when the women in the game are taking action.
My belief, thinking, and feeling, is that government shouldn’t have the power or authority to mandate hiring quotas to a private or publicly traded company, regardless of what sector the individual represents.
If the government wants x # represented, then the government can do so within their areas of hiring. However, it will appear to go against anti-discriminatory laws.
I don’t like being yanked around and manipulated by social engineer freaks, who must be sociopaths as their meddling doesn’t raise us up to be better and improve. If what is being offered isn’t an improvement, then why is it being offered? We’re being used to sow discord. I’d rather have an organic garden with good people.
Let businesses do what works for them.
