Category: News and Views
Firms face quota deadline
Norway's center-left government has issued a warning to 140 companies that still don't have enough women on their boards of directors: Appoint more, or
be dissolved.
Government minister Karita Bekkemellem intends to enforce Norway's law requiring that at least 40 percent of the boards of stocklisted companies be made
up of female directors.
Companies organized as "ASA" corporations are required to meet a state-mandated quota that calls for 40 percent of their directors to be women.
The quota was ushered in during the previous center-right government coalition, and has been enthusiastically embraced by the current Labour Party-led government.
Equality minister Karita Bekkemellem told newspaper Aftenposten on Friday that those companies failing to meet the quota will face involuntary dissolution
from January 1. Many are within traditionally male-oriented branches like the offshore oil industry, shipping and finance.
Among the firms targeted on Bekkemellem's list are some fairly large companies including Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA, securities firm Carnegie ASA, Awilco
Offshore and Frontier Drilling. Some of the stocklisted companies have no women at all on their boards of directors, including DNO, Ocean Rig, PetroJack
and Teco Maritime.
"My advice to them is that they take responsibility and find the women they need," she said. She called the law "historic and radical," and said it will
be enforced.
Topics like these have always made me think of a slippery slope. And before anyone gets on my case, I want it to be known that I support utter equality, IE, that a person should be judged on who they are as a person, and by their merrits. The problem that you get into with something like this is that they're demanding that a board have a certain number of women. It says nothing about whether they have to be quallified or know what they're doing. Making demands like this is also putting physicality in front of quallifications. It looks more equal, but in the end it's not, because the boards members are being forced to consist of people depending on their bodies, and not on their merrits.
I'm not sure I'm expressing this well, as it's 4:30 in the morning, so if I'm not making sense, someone say so, and I'll try again after more sleep. :)
the issue here is that in norway, and indeed the rest of the world, not even 10% of the indurstry is made up of women, so, they'd actually be disproportionatly represented.
It's socialism gone mad, but there will be problems for Norway if it enforces this law. If so many businesses don't have enough women and are therefore disolved, there will be more unemployment, people will leave Norway for other countries, and perhaps with a poor economy, Norway may face an increase in crime. Of course, if women are so unhappy that they can't be on the boards of businesses owned by men, why don't they set up their own businesses?
Norway has for a long time been under a sort of socialist government, as have many of those countries, such as sweden.
I fully agree with breaking down stareotypical roles and status, but, this just takes it too far, equal pay, the same rights and so on i totally agree with and would fight for them, but, this is just too much, if they want to have women's representation, they should make it proportionate.