Image: Shutterstock Image: Shutterstock A NEW BILL currently working its way through the Oireachtas would see a 40% gender quota being brought in for company boards within three years of its implementation.
Gillian Harford, who is part of The 30% Club Ireland which wants to see better gender balance at leadership levels, and a former head of diversity and inclusion at AIB, told The Journal that The 30% Club would prefer to see quotas achieved on a voluntary basis, rather than legislation requiring more gender balance on boards.
“But also what you see in the UK, which we’re starting to see in Ireland as well, is that the voluntary approach doesn’t just get you better balance on boards, it gets you better balance in senior leadership,” Harford said. While representation on boards across all listed companies is just 26.2%, this is still an increase of four percentage points on the previous year.The Irish Corporate Governance Bill was introduced in the Dáil by Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins in October last year.
From a mentoring perspective, I believe women in senior positions, whether intentionally or not, have the power to influence women coming up behind them and show them what is achievable. Similar measures to this bill have already been adopted by a number of European countries and was recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality.
Higgins said she does not believe a list of potential reasons should be included in the legislation as the aim is to encourage companies to meet the quota, but exceptions could be made if firms can prove they made a “genuine effort”.“You could have a company that interviewed X number of people and offered it to X number of people and they were turned down, so it would be procedural,” she explained.
Initially, this was based on voluntary compliance, but following a review of its operation in 2005 the government deemed progress insufficient. “Actually when they introduced quotas in Norway, a number of companies de-listed because the consequences were so great – it was just easier to de-list. Our philosophy is that 30% is the floor, not the ceiling, and what we see in other European countries is that once they meet the quota they stop.”
“You solve the problem all the way through the pipeline so, yes, you might need more focused action around targets at the most senior levels, but it really needs to start at every point in the career chain, starting at entry-level,” she said. IOD chief executive Maura Quinn said that while many companies are making good progress, there needs to be a shift in the way board positions are filled.
“If they’re not planning for succession, they’re not planning for diversity,” Quinn pointed out. 45% of board members in the survey said they recruited to fill vacant seats as a direct approach from another member of the board. Dr Kara McGann, head of social policy at the business representative group IBEC, said gender diversity at this level has a number of other non-financial benefits for companies too.
We have a long way to go before we see ethnic minorities represented on Ireland’s boards. There are other issues such as age and we need to look at ability rather than disability. I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of that in this discussion because it could make us maybe lazy if we’re only looking at diversity in terms of gender. ‘Spread too thinly’
#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to youWhen asked about the clause in the legislation that will allow companies to explain why they have not complied with the mandatory quota, Harford said she struggles to think of a “good reason” for not having a more balanced board.
She said a whole of society approach is required to tackle the underlying issues preventing gender balance.
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