Are Quotas the Way Forward for Women's Fair Representation?
photo credit: Timo Stern, via Unsplash
In February, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund set out a new 30 percent target for women’s representation on the boards of the 9,200 companies the fund invests in globally. The fund’s chief governance and compliance officer, Carine Smith-Ilhenacho said of the new requirements, “diversity is good for the board because it brings better perspective, it is better for decision-making and increasingly important for the legitimacy of companies.”
Norway has long led the world in gender quotas for the private sector; in 2003, they became the first country to mandate a 40 percent quota for women on the boards of the 500 firms headquartered in the country. In the past twenty years, many other countries and even the state of California have followed suit.
California passed a quota law in 2018, requiring all companies with permanent headquarters in the state to add at least one woman to their board by December 2019, and an additional one to two women, based on board size, by December 2021. Failure to comply results in a $100,000 fine for a first violation and up to $300,000 for subsequent violations.
photo credit: You X Ventures, via Unsplash
Building upon the gender quota, the state legislature passed an underrepresented communities quota in October 2020 to improve the racial, sexual orientation and gender diversity which continues to lag on corporate boards. Although the gender quota adopted in 2018 had visible impact with women’s representation on boards growing by four percent in one year, it failed to have an impact on the representation of women of color and gender non-conforming individuals.
The quota requires boards to nominate or add one board member from one of the outlined underrepresented communities to comply by the end of 2021. And, boards with four to eight members must include two members from the underrepresented communities by the end of 2022, those with nine-plus members need a minimum of three members from the outlined communities. While many of the largest economies have implemented gender quotas, California is the first to implement a quota to address racial inequality, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Quotas are also steeped in political life, 60 percent of countries use gender quotas at the national level. Not only are quotas used widely, they have also had an impact on women’s representation with 43 of the top 50 ranked countries for women’s representation using some form of gender quota for national elections.
Quotas have proven to be an effective tool to ensure equity for traditionally underrepresented groups; but, not all quotas are designed to succeed at inclusivity. When writing and adopting gender quotas gatekeepers must be cognizant of the intersectionality of the fight for equality and fair representation. Keeping in mind gender is not a binary, and while quotas may not set out to favor white women, they can often result in the continued underrepresentation of women of color when intentional steps are not taken to ensure white women are not overrepresented.
Gaining popularity in the private sector, gender quotas would take an effective step forward in expanding women’s voice in U.S. politics. Despite multiple “year of the woman,” women’s voices continue to be underrepresented at every level of government, and reaching gender balance demands intentional actions like quotas.
Maura Reilly is RepresentWomen’s Outreach and Communications Coordinator from Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2019 with an honors degree in Social Anthropology. To hear more from Maura follow her on Twitter at @further_maura.