5 ms·

EU to set 40% board quota for women by 2026

14 points by sereja 4y ago

stevenalowe 4y ago
Interesting - a similar California law was recently struck down, under what authority does the EU meddle in business like this?
- wahern 4y ago
  > Interesting - a similar California law was recently struck down Notably, it was struck down by a California court as violating the California constitution. > under what authority does the EU meddle in business like this? According to https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3478 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... the policy represents an agreement among the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament, with the latter two still requiring a formal vote. And the EU mandate will actually be on member countries to pass enacting legislation within their jurisdiction. Prudent policy or not, I don't think there's any way to spin this as an EU end-run around the democratic process or member state sovereignty. And I don't think this policy applies to foreign corporations, only to companies incorporated in a member jurisdiction. (But I haven't read anything specifically mentioning the scope.)
- Strom 4y ago
  It would be an EU directive, which means that member states will have to write new laws that accomplish this. However don't get the wrong idea that this was just decided by someone in Brussels and it's a directive now. This is just a draft for a potential directive. This has not been approved by the European Parliament or the European Council. [1] Long way to go still. -- [1] "Once Parliament and Council have formally approved the agreement" https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/et/press-room/20220603IPR32195/women-on-boards-deal-to-boost-gender-balance-in-companies https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/et/press-room/20220603IP...
- brazzy 4y ago
  Under the authority of the EU parliament (assuming that this draft legislation eventually gets a majority there), given to it by the member states through the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. By the way, the directive's wording is actually gender-neutral, talking about an "under-represented sex". If a company has a board dominated by women, it becomes a quota for men.
  - smeagull 4y ago
- car_analogy 4y ago
  > While there is no penalty for missing the target, companies that do achieve it will win public praise. So no authority needed. But it's an interesting legal question whether the EU could impose such a requirement (backed by fines, for example) on unwilling member states.
greatgib 4y ago
So bad such laws. It is good to promote equality and woman in boards and all, but here it is a prime to mediocrity. You will not get a board seat because you are the more competent but because you are a: - woman - hispanic - a pinguin - ...
_-david-_ 4y ago
There is a paywall so I couldn't read the article. I'm curious if some male board members are going to start identifying as women. Does this directive have any rules regarding that?
- hunglee2 4y ago
  this is actually a really interesting point. Gender identity vs Gender equality. I guess the authorities might find themselves in the position of having to judge the authenticity of a gender identity claim, something which they would not want to do, so I suspect they would wave any claims through
  - sroont 4y ago
    Unfortunately this is already happening in the UK, for example: https://archive.ph/dM4D0 https://archive.ph/dM4D0 It really does make a mockery of the struggle women continue to have to achieve equality in this still largely male-dominated area.
    - hunglee2 4y ago
      I suspect no one anticipated the identity could come into tension with equality in this way, but in hindsight it seems obvious and inevitable that it would. We probably will end up abandoning gender categories altogether, it seems the only possible step forward
hunglee2 4y ago
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3478 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... official EU press release
sroont 4y ago
Hopefully they'll define this quota in terms of sex rather than gender identity. Otherwise this is a pointless endeavour. Their press release seems to imply this will be the case but, well, you never know these days. There's a lot of confusion and contention around this issue. Here's an interesting article about a similar consultation in the UK and its outcome, in terms of collecting statistics on the female to male ratio in boardrooms: https://sex-matters.org/posts/the-workplace/fca-women-on-corporate-boards https://sex-matters.org/posts/the-workplace/fca-women-on-cor...
djbebs 4y ago
I need to leave this shithole.
sn0w_crash 4y ago
Can they explicitly define what they mean by “a woman” ? If a 40% of a board’s males identify as women, does that solve this quota?
- yucky 4y ago
  >Can they explicitly define what they mean by “a woman” ? Nope. And I'm not trying to be glib here either, this segment of society literally claims that a woman is whatever anybody wants it to be while at the same time demanding special treatment for anybody who claims to be a woman. It doesn't follow any rules of logic at all.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
akomtu 4y ago
cato_the_elder 4y ago
> While there is no penalty for missing the target, companies that do achieve it will win public praise. What kind of law is that? Ruling by the sanction of the victim [1]? Also, you can be gender-fluid [2], right? You can be a woman while serving on the board, and a man otherwise. [1]: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sanction_of_the_victim.html http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sanction_of_the_victim.htm... [2]: https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Genderfluid https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Genderfluid

14 points by sereja 4y ago

Interesting - a similar California law was recently struck down, under what authority does the EU meddle in business like this?

wahern 4y ago
> Interesting - a similar California law was recently struck down Notably, it was struck down by a California court as violating the California constitution. > under what authority does the EU meddle in business like this? According to https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3478 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... the policy represents an agreement among the European Commission, European Council, and European Parliament, with the latter two still requiring a formal vote. And the EU mandate will actually be on member countries to pass enacting legislation within their jurisdiction. Prudent policy or not, I don't think there's any way to spin this as an EU end-run around the democratic process or member state sovereignty. And I don't think this policy applies to foreign corporations, only to companies incorporated in a member jurisdiction. (But I haven't read anything specifically mentioning the scope.)
Strom 4y ago
It would be an EU directive, which means that member states will have to write new laws that accomplish this. However don't get the wrong idea that this was just decided by someone in Brussels and it's a directive now. This is just a draft for a potential directive. This has not been approved by the European Parliament or the European Council. [1] Long way to go still. -- [1] "Once Parliament and Council have formally approved the agreement" https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/et/press-room/20220603IPR32195/women-on-boards-deal-to-boost-gender-balance-in-companies https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/et/press-room/20220603IP...
brazzy 4y ago
Under the authority of the EU parliament (assuming that this draft legislation eventually gets a majority there), given to it by the member states through the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. By the way, the directive's wording is actually gender-neutral, talking about an "under-represented sex". If a company has a board dominated by women, it becomes a quota for men.
- smeagull 4y ago
car_analogy 4y ago
> While there is no penalty for missing the target, companies that do achieve it will win public praise. So no authority needed. But it's an interesting legal question whether the EU could impose such a requirement (backed by fines, for example) on unwilling member states.

greatgib 4y ago

So bad such laws. It is good to promote equality and woman in boards and all, but here it is a prime to mediocrity. You will not get a board seat because you are the more competent but because you are a: - woman - hispanic - a pinguin - ...

_-david-_ 4y ago

There is a paywall so I couldn't read the article. I'm curious if some male board members are going to start identifying as women. Does this directive have any rules regarding that?

hunglee2 4y ago
this is actually a really interesting point. Gender identity vs Gender equality. I guess the authorities might find themselves in the position of having to judge the authenticity of a gender identity claim, something which they would not want to do, so I suspect they would wave any claims through
- sroont 4y ago
  Unfortunately this is already happening in the UK, for example: https://archive.ph/dM4D0 https://archive.ph/dM4D0 It really does make a mockery of the struggle women continue to have to achieve equality in this still largely male-dominated area.
  - hunglee2 4y ago
    I suspect no one anticipated the identity could come into tension with equality in this way, but in hindsight it seems obvious and inevitable that it would. We probably will end up abandoning gender categories altogether, it seems the only possible step forward

hunglee2 4y ago

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3478 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_... official EU press release

sroont 4y ago

Hopefully they'll define this quota in terms of sex rather than gender identity. Otherwise this is a pointless endeavour. Their press release seems to imply this will be the case but, well, you never know these days. There's a lot of confusion and contention around this issue. Here's an interesting article about a similar consultation in the UK and its outcome, in terms of collecting statistics on the female to male ratio in boardrooms: https://sex-matters.org/posts/the-workplace/fca-women-on-corporate-boards https://sex-matters.org/posts/the-workplace/fca-women-on-cor...

djbebs 4y ago

I need to leave this shithole.

sn0w_crash 4y ago

Can they explicitly define what they mean by “a woman” ? If a 40% of a board’s males identify as women, does that solve this quota?

yucky 4y ago
>Can they explicitly define what they mean by “a woman” ? Nope. And I'm not trying to be glib here either, this segment of society literally claims that a woman is whatever anybody wants it to be while at the same time demanding special treatment for anybody who claims to be a woman. It doesn't follow any rules of logic at all.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

akomtu 4y ago

cato_the_elder 4y ago

> While there is no penalty for missing the target, companies that do achieve it will win public praise. What kind of law is that? Ruling by the sanction of the victim [1]? Also, you can be gender-fluid [2], right? You can be a woman while serving on the board, and a man otherwise. [1]: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sanction_of_the_victim.html http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/sanction_of_the_victim.htm... [2]: https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Genderfluid https://gender.fandom.com/wiki/Genderfluid