Pros and Cons of Gender Quotas Essay

There has been a considerable improvement of fe masculine representation in some beas of life in the other(prenominal) blow in 2012, women took home much than a third of the medals awarded at the London Olympics, but more importantly, the percentage of women on the boards of the 100 largest companies has risen over the past year to a record of 15. 6%. And in the last six months, 35% of new board appointments to FTSE 250 companies turn out been women (Braund).Many countries, led by Norway, have promoted female representation by implementing sexual activity quotas for corporate boards and they do so because gender quotas increase diversity in the puzzle outplace and with increased diversity comes many derivative benefits. Increased diversity by itself is a tremendous benefit it is in conformity with the notions of equality and representation (Bilkisu).By increasing diversity on corporate boards, we digest give speedy increase in womens representation and guarantee equality of results for women and men aspirants and, in doing so, support the concepts of freedom and intimacy that this country was found upon (Bilkisu). Furthermore, not only do gender quotas promote democracy done increased diversity, they also swear out to defeat the tendencies of groups composed of connatural individuals.Corporate boards with members that have similar backgrounds and have been through similar socialization are more the likely than not to share views and presumptions and are less likely to take in vigorous discussion and to challenge management (Gratton). Sharing views and presumptions and the reluctance to debate amongst one another results in groupthink, in which group members try to lessen conflict by reaching consensus and on that pointfore create an atmosphere of decreased creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking.This scenario often exists in all male or majority male corporate boards because they tend towards the risky shift which results in them collu ding with each other and also lack the diverse networks that are so crucial to effective reading search and decision making (Gratton). Diversity promoted by gender quotas can provide a wider range of opinion, experience and networking but also can help prevent groupthink that can hinder innovation (Dong-youb). By introducing more women, assembly linees can reate an environment that stifles groupthink tendencies and allows for a larger variety of ideas and opinions to be shared.Introducing more women to corporate boards through gender quotas can help the business better understand the needs of diverse customers and workers and with the increasing globalization of the worlds economy, the customer base and work force for businesses are in fact becoming more diverse (Dong-youb). A better understanding of this increasingly diverse group of people allows the business to service their markets properly and enjoy continued profitability.Additionally, women appear to be gradually taking con trol of the economy women control about 70 percent of dwelling spending and with women making more of the sparing decisions, the need for more women on corporate boards becomes even more glaringly apparent (Bart). Especially in the consumer celestial sphere where the products and services are mainly bought by women, it is obvious that appointing more women to corporate boards would support the increasing number of female consumers by promoting their interests in business decisions (Gratton).Companies that conduct to ignore this shift in society would be wasting the ample amount of talent that exists already, as well as passing up the estimated economic benefits and boost to productivity of increasing female participation in the workforce at 11 percent of gross domestic product (Coonan). Diversity at the board-level also provides theatrical role models at the top of the corporate ladder that encourage aspiring younger engagementees with non-traditional qualifications or backgro unds (Dong-youb).There have been an increasing number of women enrolling in higher education in proportion to men and an increase in the number of women on corporate boards would provide those young aspiring women with a role model. However, despite all the benefits that implementing gender quotas could have, there has not been as much change on the makeup of corporate boards as would be expected and there is a group of people that are becoming frustrated by a lack of progress in this area and simply want quotas as a catalyst to disrupt the inertia and stimulate affirmative action (Jury).Cons of Gender QuotasWhile there are many people who see the benefits of gender quotas on corporate boards and strongly support the implementation of such, there are also people who view a gender quota as wrong in principle, has difficulties in practice, is tokenistic and is counterproductive to the end goal (Jury). Much of the view that gender quotas are not the solution to the lack of diversity on corporate boards can be contributed to the belief that the fundamental criteria for a board appointment must be talent and appropriateness and this belief is shared by both businesses and the women that businesses employ (Gratton).Everyone prefers to be chosen for certain positions based on merit as opposed to being picked for other reasons, since being chosen based on merit acknowledges strengths and dismisses any accusations of preferential treatment, especially when selection processes are transparent. Women facing minority representation on corporate boards are especially adamant that they dont want to go on a board as a token gesture, they want to be there because its meritorious (McFarland).Women, just like men, want to be recognized for their skills and achievements and not their appearance or gender no woman wants to be a token female, yet the recent adjure for quotas of women in the boardroom runs the risk of achieving exactly that (Mantzarapis). Implementing a gender qu ota for corporate boards can affect the dynamics of the workplace negatively by promoting the perception that women are only being appointed onto boards due to gender and not ability.These assumptions and questions concerning the reasons behind the promotion of women all contribute to undermining her ability from the start and may make it more difficult for her to prove herself (Mantzarapis). Even if the company openly claims that its decisions are based only on merit and not gender, the existence of gender quotas alone causes questions to be asked about the reasons behind a promotion or appointment no matter what the real reasons are.Since a quota system based on gender would overthrow the merits of those females who would be appointed to corporate boards, those against gender quotas believe it would be an insult to women and a great disservice to companies if women are appointed to fill quotas as standards get out inevitably be compromised when an arbitrary numerical target is s et against an unrealistic timeline (Khoo).