For a long time here, there have been a very unequal male/female distribution of board members in publicly traded companies. So much so that the law was changed, mandating at least 40% of each sex for boards with at least ten members; for smaller boards, the percentwise distribution is different. When the law was first proposed, there was no end to the warnings and complaining and whining from grumpy old (male) farts who felt their hegemonial role was threatened, and who thought having more women on the boards would make the companies “soft”. But guess what? Fifteen years on, the law works, the women have (as expected) proven to be just as competent as the men, and the criticism has largely stopped. And as far as I know, no company have gone bankrupt because there are less conservative and misogynistic old farts on the boards. The EU has also taken an interest in this law, and its bureaucratic gears have started turning. Sometimes, changing the law seems to be the only way to break outdated ways of thinking.
1 Like