Gender Quota I: Davos World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum has introduced a quota for female executives at the 2011 Davos summit and at least one of the five delegates sent by “strategic partners” must now be female. A WEF spokesman said, as a membership organization, there is a limited amount that they could do to improve female representation in boardrooms and governments and the quota is a way to nudge members in the right direction. At previous Davos meetings, the participation of women ranged from 9 to 15 % between 2001 and 2005, and this rose to between 15% and 17% from 2006 to 2010.
2011’s gender quota seemingly resulted in a reversal of progress as women comprised only 16% of participants. Shockingly, 20 of the “strategic partners” could not find a single qualified woman in their organisations, and opted to forego their fifth ticket and simply bring four men. There are currently no women in the WEF’s Managing Board or Managing Directors. 22% of the Foundation Board, 27% of Senior Directors and 50% of Directors are female.
Female quotas are a controversial approach to tackling gender inequality. Kirsty MacArthur, a relationship director at Heartwood Wealth Management, a U.K.-based wealth-management boutique, said of quotas: “I feel uncomfortable with positive discrimination. Women should achieve success based on their own merit, not as part of a quota.” This is the first time a minimum quota for women has been used at the annual meeting of the world’s business leaders. Information on corporate gender quotas imposed on the national level continues in ‘Policy Development’.