Cripes! A woman on the Board

Whatever next? A female prime minister? Oh....

In this PC world that we all live in (and not the technology PC) quotas are taking over our lives.

Earlier this year (and I had no idea about this) the EU Justice Commissioner Vivienne Redding apparently challenged publicly listed firms in Europe to sign a ‘Woman on the Board Pledge for Europe' by March 2012, which would see the number of women on corporate boards increase by 30 per cent by 2015 and 40 per cent by 2020.

I received a press release telling me that six months had now passed (hence this rant) and the debate around the issue was turning to quotas.

Errrr - why do firms need to sign a pledge?

These ‘Women In' reports always get my goat because I think it is making things harder for women by making it into a bigger issue than it actually is.

Wow - there are women working in IT. Really? Gosh that is amazing!

There's a woman on the board. Gasp!

Our chief executive is a woman. Shock! Horror!

What happened to just awarding people jobs, accolades etc on the basis of merit - rather than the fact that they are male or female?

Being forced to award a certain quota of women a certain number of positions to me takes away from the fact that they have got the position through hard work and talent.

And could even make some firms think twice in case positive discrimination is brought up.

As far as I'm concerned quotas like this are tantamount to social engineering in the workplace.

Maybe the EU would be better placed just focusing on the Eurozone crisis for now.

Just a thought.