Mandatory Appointment Of At Least One Women Director On Board: Justified Or Not?
Mandatory Appointment Of At Least One Women Director On Board: Justified Or Not?
Mounting pressure on listed companies, regulator SEBI has instructed them to mandatorily elect at least one woman director on company’s board by the end of March. The companies which fail to adhere have to face regulatory action. The move came after the regulator discovered that almost 33% of the top-500 listed companies do not have a woman member on their boards. The regulator has written to over 160 companies to follow compliance. Is such a move by SEBI justified?
Yes
- In recent years, women have made their presence felt in each and every field whether its politics, business or sports. The contribution by woman is incredible and cannot be ignored.
- Analyzing the recent economic report, it is evident companies having women at top level of management perform better compared to companies with only men employees at top level.
- There is relationship between financial success and gender diversity and hence making it compulsory would benefit corporate houses.
- Such quotas rules are already enforced in many countries like Spain, Belgium, France and Italy.
- Gender bias means that women may not be allowed the role where her productivity can be maximized. The move will help to eliminate existing gender-bias in Corporates.
No
- Enforcement may downplay the accomplishments achieved by women in their professional life and will play a negative role in terms of balanced leadership.
- Quota may negatively affect the executive pipeline and will adversely affect the mindset of employees. It would have a negative impact on the overall productivity of the company.
- Decision making will be based on the sensitive factor like gender bias which again will affect the performance of companies.
- Women are central part of the family and dependency of family responsibilities cannot be overruled. Corporate responsibility just out of enforcement and not supported by willingness can prove to be a disaster.
- The main problem is of talent. It is not necessary each and every listed company will necessarily have a talented woman employee who can be included in the board.
Conclusion
The decisions like this put a question on the real caliber of women. When we talk about women empowerment, such decisions degrade women. They further become an object of mockery. Here, it is important to understand that being in a company’s board requires talent. Making it mandatory is going to hamper the performance of a company.
Discussion
- RE: Mandatory Appointment Of At Least One Women Director On Board: Justified Or Not? -Aman Singh (03/23/15)
- teena, my friend i heartily support your conclusion point that positions in places like organisations should not fall prey to any emotional sentiment towards any gender rather than such places are deeply in need of talents. We can never ignore the potential of a woman and her sacrifices along with all her talents that she possess, but such positions need to be dealt more with the aptitude of one's ownself rather than making it a cherry pick on political lines. i truly favour more and more women in the areas where they truly desreve it but not as mandatory provision which will degrade the quality level at such high levels.
Such provisions are not necessary in a place like oraganisational entity else women like chandra kochhar and indra nooyi would not have been in the position where they are today.
Thank-you - RE: Mandatory Appointment Of At Least One Women Director On Board: Justified Or Not? -Deepa Kaushik (03/23/15)
- Reservation and gender biasness are two different scenarios. Absence of the female executives on the top positions in the corporate sector does not necessarily mean that there is gender biasness. The top positions and the directorial positions require efficient candidates for an effective management. The management is responsible for the thousands of employees in the organization along with their families. The requirement at such a critical position is for a person with efficiency and not the prejudiced attitude with regard to is gender or caste or religion, or any other thing.
A mandatory appointment of the women director is nothing but a sort of reservation on the top most position in any organization for women. The reservation itself means that the sector is weak. If females are ready to accept for them to be weaker than the males and their inefficiency to establish their stand on the basis of their efficacy and merit, then we need to say a hard-hearted yes for the reservation, or in other words the mandatory appointment.
The women in the present era have immense courage and self-pride along with the charisma to establish their glory. Taking up the advantage of the reservation would be a coward move. In fact, such a reservation is also an unfair play in terms of equality with respect to the abilities of the deserving candidate. Hence, the mandatory appointment of the women director on board is in no way justified.
