‘Instead of preventing meritocracy,as some people fear, quotas help promote it by gradually widening the choice of candidates’When I sat on the board of the Department of Trade and Industry, and then then the Department for Trade,Business and Skills, I noticed something that had been lost from the private sector boards I had sat on previously. The number of women on the board almost outnumbered the men( even before considering the non-executive directors) and this completely changed the dynamics. I noticed that when there is more than one woman on board, or not only finish women speak out more but their influence increases.
It was a worthy experience,particularly after a long period in the private sector, where it was often a case of “who shouts loudest (generally a man), or wins”. Whether more women on boards led to better decision making is difficult to prove,but the chances are it did. It seems obvious to me that choosing senior candidates from a bigger, more diverse pool can only improve the overall quality of the appointed collective.
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Source: theguardian.com