Make 9-yr rule mandatory to raise gender diversity
WHEN it comes to addressing the gender imbalance on company boards, there are no easy answers. Some argue that official intervention amounts to interfering with the free market and could even impede the advancement of women's interests, others think that without help from the authorities, the number of women on boards will always remain small.
At one extreme is to intervene via quotas and hefty punishments for non-compliance - Norway, for example, in 2003 made it a legal requirement for companies to have at least 40 per cent of company board members to be women, failing which companies face the risk of being delisted.
At the other extreme is what is practised here in Singapore and many other jurisdictions, which is the free market approach - companies are left to choose who they want on the boards. Has this been successful? It depends on your point of view - so far, this "best person for the job regardless of gender" thinking has meant that the proportion of women on boards as of last year is about 9.7 per cent.
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