Real women don’t need quotas

That was the topic debated last week in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Management great debate event at the National Convention Centre.

I was given the task of debating for the affirmative, which meant I was debating against having quotas.

I’m not sure of the number but there seemed to be about 1000 people in the room and they voted a resounding “Yes, we do need quotas”.

I think however that the audience was not really simply voting for quotas as much as voting for change.

Every person in the room agreed that we need more women in leadership roles.

I may well have taken to the topic tongue in cheek after my esteemed team of Robyn Archer and Jane Wolfe presented very convincing arguments, but Ita Buttrose with teammates Julie McKay and Sue McGready definitely pipped us at the post.

As the final speaker I argued that there was no doubt that we all agreed that we needed more women on boards, but it is how women get there that matters.

It did not take quotas to get:

• 27.3% of all federal parliamentarians to be women.
• 30% of all small business owners to be female.
• 70.6% of all teachers are women – the role that influences future generations.
• 100% of all mothers are women.

None of those important roles required quotas.

When I searched Google for “real women Australia” it returned a website that was “empowering curvy women” – I asked “do we need to be curvy to be considered a real woman – and do we need quotas for that?”

Searching Google for “quotas Australia” most of the results were quotas for primary production such as dairy, beef and wheat.

“Are women in leadership to be put into the same category as agriculture?” I implored.

Of course the more serious discussions of tokenism and merit were well argued by my teammates and I summarised: “Just because we make it to the board room doesn’t mean that we will be listened to, respected or valued – in fact if put there by quota we may do more harm than good for the ‘cause’.”

The corporate world by nature will not relish more regulation … a board is in place to represent the interests of its shareholders.

It is clear that we want change. If every person who has a share (of any size) attends the annual general meeting they have the right to ask a question, so let’s all start asking the question “Why does your board makeup not represent the community it serves?” The chairman and board will be forced to respond and take action.

Yes we want change, we have the power to influence change for the companies we have shares in. It will cause change faster than any other action. After all, quotas simply might not be the best way to get change.

We may have lost the debate but at least the conversation continues and it is not even International Women’s Day, which is usually the anniversary where we discuss this subject over and over again, year after year.

Please take action now – go to an annual general meeting and have your say – because we all agree that change is needed.

Naomi Simson is considered one of Australia’s ‘Best Bosses’. She is an employee engagement advocate and practices what she preaches in her own business. RedBalloon has been named as one of only six Hewitt Best Employers in Australia and New Zealand for 2009 and awarded an engagement scorecard of over 90% two years in a row – the average in Australian businesses is 55%. RedBalloon has also been nominated by BRW as being in the top 10 Best Places to Work in Australia behind the likes of Google. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a passionate speaker inspiring people on employer branding, engagement and reward and recognition. Naomi writes a blog and is a published author – and has received many accolades and awards for the business she founded – RedBalloon.com.au.