Employer organisations are against the imposition of quotas for women on company boards, insisting change will gradually happen anyway as more women join the labour market.
Two days ago, the European Commission said it was mulling the idea of introducing regulations to impose quotas for women on company boards in a bid to break the glass ceiling.
But Tancred Tabone, president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, believes the introduction of quotas will not serve the cause well.
“Being a company board member carries huge responsibilities and I feel it would be unfair on an individual if her presence on the board is simply to satisfy a quota system,” Mr Tabone said.
While insisting on meritocracy and competence as the sole parameters for choosing company board members, Mr Tabone felt it was also unacceptable to have men appointed simply because of their contacts.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day on Thursday, European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said self-regulation had not delivered the desired results to have more women on company boards.
The Commission has launched a public consultation to identify possible action at EU level to redress the imbalance in Europe’s boardrooms and the introduction of quotas for all companies is a suggestion that will be put forward.
Mr Tabone admitted that certain sectors of the economy were dominated by men with a macho attitude that caused difficulties for women. But he also noted that the chamber, which he described as a conservative organisation, was the only entity to have elected a woman as president, referring to his predecessor, Helga Ellul.
“As president I beg and chase women to fill in various posts in the organisation but it is hard to find those willing to accept. I fear if we push it too far and too fast it will have negative repercussions and it won’t help the cause.”
Mr Tabone believes the number of women in boardrooms will increase over time given there are more women entering University and the efforts to increase female labour participation.
“It is an evolutionary process not a revolutionary one until those in the 24 to the 35 age bracket start getting into the new system,” he said.
This sentiment is shared by the director general of the Malta Employers’ Association (MEA), Joe Farrugia, who also disputes the Commission’s conclusion that self-regulation has not worked.
Despite women making up only three per cent of company board members in Malta, Mr Farrugia insisted the situation was changing gradually as more qualified women made it up company hierarchies.
“Over the past 10 years, I have witnessed more female managers taking up courses offered by the MEA and, today, a majority of participants are women,” he said.
“It is inevitable that more women will gradually be appointed as board members,” Mr Farrugia added.