Constantly new reports on equality and diversity in Norwegian business life show the same as before: Women are still virtually absent from the innermost decision-making circles. Talents create innovation Business leaders are counting on themselves if they see quotas as a women’s issue. It is as much a question of a competitive business life. It amazes me that business leaders who speak warmly of restructuring and innovation do not realize that a lack of equality inhibits and undermines our ambitions to ensure that the right resources and the best competence are at the table when our companies make their most important decisions. Universities and colleges are overflowing with brilliantly intelligent and engaged girls. These must be part of the solutions that transform the business world to become more sustainable and digitized. Diversity contributes to value creation. But in the private business world, we are still dragging our feet. Extending the law At news’s political quarter on Wednesday, Minister for Business Jan Christian Vestre said that he wants to extend the law on quotas to apply to more companies than today. I support the proposal, given that it only applies to limited companies of a certain size. This country is full of qualified women and men who can occupy many, many more corporate boards. There was also no problem finding women for the boards when quotas for the ASA boards were legally required at the time. Despite all the opposition to the law. Prejudice slows down It is of course disappointing that in 2022, 20 years after the quota law was introduced, we are talking about the need for new regulations to ensure a better gender balance. One wishes the world had moved on. Unfortunately, the facts speak for themselves. Only 20 percent of top managers in Norwegian AS are women, and only one in ten board members in Norwegian business are women. I can understand that quotas appear antiquarian. But that reflects the business world, not the law. We let personal stereotypes and delusions slow us down, and that’s how business loses talent. Must have a woman I myself have been assigned to the selection committee in Orkla in 2001. In a discussion where male candidates dominated, my name came up as the one who could be allowed to stay, because “we must have a woman anyway”. That time I sat on my hands and asked myself: Do I want this? I can understand that young women refuse to be elected on such terms. At the same time, men have been subject to quotas for generations. To that I have the following to say: Power is power. If you get the opportunity to help influence, to make a difference – take it! You can get help to open the door, but only one person can go through it. Too slowly And luckily it’s going in the right direction. Equality is a topic in boardrooms, and several companies measure equality and diversity. But that does not mean that the law has played its part. It should worry us in business that we are apparently the worst at recruiting broadly. For business, women need more than they need business. And we must soon understand that.
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Mild coercion in business is actually necessary – Statement
