German Liberals block women’s quota for Europe’s corporate boards

40 comments
  1. It should always be the person that fits the position best.
    Anything else is stupid and leads to sock puppets at the front.
    If a women is a better fit for the job then appoint her, if its a men then him. If its a dog with one eye, then appoint him.
    Men and women are to be treated equally, and as such any incorporation of forced quotas makes sure they are not – they are thus seen as less and belittled in order to make it into a higher up position.

  2. I wouldn’t take the articel too serious. We are very early in the process and the FDP is known for having a tendencies of giving up its liberal positions for some political horse trading. I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a U-turn.

    But in general I find it strange why this should be an EU policy to begin with. It has nothing to do with harmonising the single market or preserving competition (unless you assume countries with a forced quota have a competetive disadvantage and therefore everyone has to be brought down to that level).

  3. I do dislike the Liberals, but they have been impressively effective in pushing for societal legislation that garners media attention and/or potentially plays well with the base of their coalition partners (not this law per se, but lifting restrictions on abortions and gender transition, e.g.) while at the same time protecting the material interests of their own base, the owner class, bourgeoisie great and small.

    I wish my political faction was this organized and committed.

  4. Here it’s the liberals who champion such bshit.
    Good to see the FDP isn’t as completely retarded as Rutte/Kaag are.

    D66/VVD: free markets until we can put our hypocritical fingers in the cookie jar.

  5. This wasn’t even popular when it was drafted a decade ago. Now the French have dusted it off from the shelf in Brussels. The reason for the stupidity with mandatory quotas is that is that the metric is arbitrary, why not include poc? or minorities?

  6. Now, I’m not a fan of quotas either but what they are good at is creating culture change. People don’t just get to the board room, they are groomed, trained, pushed and often women just are not seen in that way in many companies. It’s a very quick way of pushing change into overdrive, even if it means some assignments aren’t always good ones (but, many aren’t anyway).

  7. These threads always remind me that everywhere in the world, there are people who are assholes. A lot of Europeans appear to have trouble understanding the concept of implicit bias, and absolutely refuse to acknowledge it or give credence to any program trying to address it. It’s kind of sad that a place that fancies itself relatively progressive gets so vehemently conservative when presented with a social problem.

  8. By giving women positions based on their gender you admit that they are unable to obtain them on their own and need a headstart to catch up to men

  9. this is a good resume of the democracy in place at brussel tho… for ten year peoples voted against this law yet they still try to bruteforce it… and one day, great success its gonna be accepted lucky us… that a good thing they ignore the vote until they get the one they want

  10. What did you do to earn your position?
    Woman: I have a Vagina

    For my future job interview in a female dominant workplace:

    Why should we hire you….. I have a penis?

  11. Maybe, just maybe we should put people in those positions because of their qualifications not to force a gender quota. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…

  12. Finally some good news. Diversity quotas are the opposite of equality, they create an inequality between competing candidates, because one helps a quota. All based characteristics that are normally grounds for discrimination lawsuits.

  13. The amount of celebrations in these comments really worries me. Men *and* women tend to be prejudiced against having women in high level functions, even after controlling for fit/skill. There is broad consensus on this in most academic fields related to this issue. Having a quota would not add bias favoring women, but limit bias favoring men.

  14. I can only support this when there will be women’s quota for coal miners, garbage collectors, brick layers and mailmans, otherwise they can fuck off

  15. if quotas are enforced, no woman EVER could properly reach a position due to her superior skills without having to deal with the “you’re only there for the quota” argument.

  16. Quotas should be abolished everywhere.

    They’re only an excuse for nepotism under a different political umbrella.

    We already have a problem with nepotism – family, friends, religion.

    We need less nepotism. Not more.

    We should also not support people who promote nepotism – like quotas. They’re the problem. Not the solution.

  17. Article paints a little bit different picture.

    >”But the liberal FDP has greater reservations. Her party has “always rejected women’s quotas as a state requirement,” confirms Nicole Schäfer, the Liberals’ women’s policy spokesperson in the Bundestag. It is, therefore, “unclear how we will proceed with the proposed EU directive.” She could not “make a statement on this yet.”

    So it’s not completely decided yet. They also said that Macron is pushing it and FDP is in the same party in European parliament as Macron’s, so there might be some lobbying to get it done.

  18. Most comments here seem to agree but as a male I’m not so sure yet what the solution is for a more diverse corporate world. It’s hard to disagree that people should be promoted based on merit, but many opportunities are still not equal or fair even before getting to leadership positions.

    The hidden problem is likely an unconscious bias. People will promote when they see what they know. So men typically promote other men based on potential they see from their own experience. Women are often blind spots for male managers.

  19. They understand that if it goes through then they will have to make quota for men in kindergardens, hospitals, schools, army etc. Otherwise they are hypocrite and very very far from liberal.

  20. Why not women quotas for miners, construction workers, garbage men, soldiers? While we are at it, add men quotas for nurses, teachers and administrative workers.

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