A Key Driver of Gender Equality

The world benefits from girls and women’s perspectives, talents and skills. In order to build a viable future that is inclusive, there must be equal opportunity for girls and women in a male-dominated world. When this happens, it allows for substantial development within the global economy and community. It is therefore vital, for women and girls to have their voices heard, and participate within the political, corporate and social spheres of society and the world in general. Women should be allowed to be shapers of their own destiny and not be made to feel as helpless bystanders in their own story.

Failure to hire and promote women, results in a significant loss of skills. One way to address these disparities is through the introduction and implementation of gender quotas. It must be noted that the introduction and implementation of the gender quotas system are highly influenced by international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the European Union (EU).

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However, according to Professor Drude Dahlerup, while gender quotas are controversial they are still being implemented, specifically and more frequently in Latin America. This paper serves to discuss the usefulness of such tactics to remedy inequality within the corporate and political spheres of society. Feminism and Women’s Rights Before discussing the usefulness of gender quotas and its impacts, let us briefly review the history of feminism and women’s rights.

It has taken hard work and dedication for women to reach the point where they are now.

Women’s Rights Movements around the world have striven to ensure that the status of women – social, economic and political, are equal to that of men. These movements challenged the status quo and sought to establish statutes and laws that aimed to suppress the discrimination of women because of their gender. Women’s Rights Movements are linked to the rise of Feminism/Feminist Theory. Feminism often involves sparking social change, and has been accredited to social movements across the globe, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards (Ritzer, 2005). High points of feminist activity and writing occurred in the liberationist movements in modern Western history (Sociological Theory, 2011). George Ritzer (2011) writes that the first wave of feminism in the 1830s focused on women’s struggle for political rights and resulted in Women’s Suffrage – the right of women to exercise their franchise and vote in local and national elections. The second wave of feminism (1960 - 1990) worked towards transforming political rights into economic and social equality, so as to redefine the relations between men and women, through challenging gender roles and confronting the establishment.

The third wave of feminism gave rise to the voices of coloured and working class women, who felt left out of the predominantly ‘white’ professional women’s struggle of the second wave, and the current ideas and struggles of women in the twenty-first century (Sociological Theory, 2011). All these actions have ultimately led to a newfound freedom that women can now enjoy where in the past they could not. But still there is still more to be done. In order for women to be given equal opportunities in a male-oriented society, there must be laws and rules put in place to help foster such an environment. What are Gender Quotas? There are norms, rules and processes of regulation that help to foster equality between the genders, of which the practice of gender quotas is just one (Meier, 2014). Gender quotas are defined as the positive measurement instrument aimed at accelerating the achievement of gender-balanced participation and representation by creating a defined percentage/proportion of places or seats to be filled by, or allocated to women and/men, generally under certain rules or criteria (“Gender Quotas”, n.d.). Gender inequality is most noticeable where women occupy – or not occupy, positions of power (Wright and Rogers, 2011).

Quotas are a form of affirmative action or equal opportunity measure designed to address the slow pace of change in the participation of women and minority groups in areas of society where they are historically underrepresented, including employment, education and in political institutions (McCann, 2013). The use of gender quotas has been particularly pertinent in the political and corporate arenas. Women in Leadership The level of independence and autonomy of female in leadership capacity has a significant impact on general wellbeing of women in the workforce. For example, the positive spill off are the formation and implementation of company policy with legitimate benefits for female employees and according to empirical findings on ‘Gender Quota and Female leadership by Wang and Kelan; having gender quotas in organisations improves corporate governance and help more women to break the glass ceiling to become top leaders. However, a commonly cited reason for the low level of female leadership on boards is a lack of access of potential female candidates to informal networking opportunities, particularly to break into male-dominated networks (Janiak 2003, Fairfax 2006, Lord Davies 2011). According to Alyse Nelson, President and CEO Vital Voices Global Partnership, 6 to 7 percent of planned funding for development is directed to the advancement of women and girl. She further noted that in order to achieve the goals set for women and girls in a particularly male-dominated culture, a viable solution is ‘empowerment of women’. Quota gives instantaneous results, however if the leader or employer does not genuinely care about women but merely subscribe to the quota for satisfying the requirement then there will be no long term benefits of the gender quota. On the other hand, Gender Quota in Norway has had a positive spill over effect for women in leadership roles.

Antonio Guterres, the ninth Secretary General of the United Nations promises by 2020 the UN Board will have gender parity. He is in support of Quotas on Boards of companies since gender equality will not happen naturally, hence the mechanism such as the gender quota in the Corporate World is necessary. Gender Quotas in Latin America and the Caribbean Despite significant progress in the reduction of Gender Equalities in Latin American Countries, the World Bank in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, have recorder a 29.8% gender gap which has projected to be bridged in another 79 years. (2017 Global Gender Gap Report) According to the Word Bank ‘women represent about 50% of the region’s population, but account for 41% of the labour force and earn on average 16% less than men” The factors that influence the gender gap are occupational segregation whilebetter educational achievement does not secure better paying jobs for women. Wage disparity in skilled jobs is as high as 25.6% (Gender Gap Report, 2017) It was Florentina Gómez Miranda, a former Argentine congresswoman who said “When a woman enters politics, it changes her. When many women do, it is politics that changes.” According to the Economist publication of July, 2018, the quotas laws support an increase in female lawmakers which increases the probability of bill passing, which affects the wellbeing of women. For example, legislation promoting the access to contraceptive in Argentina and curbing political violence against women in Mexico where 66.1 percent of all women age 15 and older have experience some kind of violence in their life.

Nonetheless, we must acknowledge the progression relating to gender quota and examples of advances in Latin American and the Caribbean as cited from the World Bank include:  Argentina achieved gender equality in primary school enrolment by the end of the nineteenth century  Colombia reduce its fertility rate from six children to fewer than three per woman in 20 years while the United States took 100 years. In Brazil, women’s participation in the labour market tripled between 1960 and 2010, reaching 60%.  Costa Rica is one of 11 countries with the highest percentage of female members of Congress, at 38%. Moreover, the World Bank in addressing the struggles of women in Latin America and the Caribbean proposes to address critical gender issues such as a reduction in excess death in girls and women, for instance in the case of maternal deaths in Haiti and other low income countries. Also the disparities in girl’s schooling as girl’s enrolment in primary and secondary schools are lower than boys, as in Guatemala where illiteracy rate is 60 percent to 40 percent. In addition, as posited by the World Bank, unequal access to economic opportunities and inclusivity of women’s voice in decision making in households will be examined with the motive of bridging the gender gap; this is aimed at influencing and positively changing the underlying mechanism of public, economic and social structures and norms.

Gender Quotas and Inequality When we think about women in society, it is often times through the lens of gender inequality. Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals fully or partly due to their gender (“Gender Inequality in the Workplace”, 2018). This is something which has weighed down women in the workplace for a long time now, and nonetheless continues despite the great achievements women’s rights movements have made. Women are half or more of the population of any country but are still under-represented in many areas around the world especially at the senior levels – managers, senior officials, legislators, parliamentarian’s/government officials and as Heads of States ('Gender Inequality in The Workplace', 2018). Today, the amount of women that are involved in outside business or firms remains relatively small even though there were, at some points, efforts to promote equality (Lee, 2018). Some people who have by no means experienced gender inequality in their working environment might find it very puzzling and difficult to interpret and have knowledge of why having equal rights in the workplace is important. Gender equality is not just important for women within the workplace but it is also equally related to the complete functioning and improvement of corporations and industries, and overall the country ('Gender Inequality in The Workplace', 2018). Formerly and presently, women always have to work harder than men to gain leadership or management positions. Seeing that it has been this challenging, corporations or business board quotas were first implemented in Norway in 2003 (Meier, 2014). Quotas are said to be the fastest, simplest and most efficient way to establish more equal numbers of men and women on firms.

With the use of quotas, if women are hired into senior levels they can definitely act as an inspiration and help other women to be hired (Lee, 2018). Advantages of Gender Quotas Gender Quotas became largely known since the 1990s in order to encourage women’s political representation. Hence, it is important to note that there are three generations of gender quotas. The first generation are for legislative elections, the second for advisory boards or committees and the last generation of gender quotas are for company boards (Meier, 2014). Dr Sam Collins, women in leadership expert, said in relation to quotas that they serve a valuable purpose since they encourage many organizations that would never normally make diversity its practice, the motivation to do something about it. He further states that once women are in more positions of power and have an actual seat at the table of influence, then cultural and systemic change can and will follow (“Women in Leadership: Hitting the Quota But Missing the Point?”, 2018). Some studies have shown that where there is greater workplace equality, created by gender quotas, there are advantages. These advantages are inclusive of better national economic growth, increased national productivity, stronger reputations for companies built upon fairness and equal rights, increased inflow of highly qualified candidates for jobs, better overall organizational performance in corporations ('Gender Inequality in The Workplace', 2018). Advantages of gender quotas in the political arena include the diversity of public policy agenda issues, elimination of structural discrimination, equal political representation and participation (Debate on Gender Quotas, n.d.), all of which contribute to more effective governance within the society.

There are over 75 countries that have established gender quota policies to ensure that more women attain leadership roles, however, the growth of the amount of women in senior leadership roles within most corporations has been insignificant and slow to occur (Whelan and Wood, 2018). Although it has not yet been proven that quotas are truly effective as a whole (Why board quotas are no friend to women workers, 2018), gender quotas do help to change the barriers that occur today and allow corporations to learn gender diversity. Therefore, until gender equality has been perfectly established, gender quotas should remain in place (Sealy and Ferrary, 2018). Effectiveness of Gender Quotas According to Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women, it will take another 50 years to achieve gender equality in the political sphere at the current rate of change. Patiently waiting for that to happen is not an option.

Tough measures are needed, and quotas for women in parliamentary meetings is the most important one. Quotas help rectify women’s under-representation in prominent positions, and make it entirely normal for women to take up managerial roles in the political, economic and academic systems (OECD, 2015). Rosina Wiltshire (2012) confirms that gender quotas are effective in women achieving political office, Guyana itself has achieved thirty percent critical mass of women in political leadership. She further confirms that countries that implement quotas, have women hold a 22.4% of their elected seats, while those that do not implement quotas have only 15.5% of women filling elected seats (Women in Political Office; LA and the Caribbean [PowerPoint Slides], 2012). Disadvantages of Gender Quotas Despite the many advantages of the use of gender quotas, there are a few disadvantages. One such disadvantage is the promotion of women not based on merit or qualification, but on simply filling quotas. This some have argued will threaten corporate governance due to underqualified women filling leadership positions (“Why board quotas are no friend to women workers”, 2018). Another disadvantage of quotas is that they don’t actually advance the cause of gender equality. Since equal opportunity is about men and women having an equal chance to compete for senior positions on the basis of qualification and merit, it can be argued that women gaining a job in a senior position as a result of the imposed quotas may not be the best way in promoting gender equality since it’s a mandate by policy makers to companies rather than a personal decision by employers. This may lead to women being stigmatized instead of a feeling of accomplishment. Another con of gender quotas is the feeling that such quotas decrease the relevance of meritocracy in the workplace.

Many persons who oppose the use of quotas believe that it is demeaning, women they believe, prefer to advance to these senior positions based on merit rather than on their sex. They believe that the government forces these companies to include women on the board of senior executives without thinking how a woman may feel about getting promoted not entirely based on her qualification but rather on her sex. Fourthly, gender quotas are discriminatory to men. Some persons may argue that despite compensating for structural discrimination, gender quotas have resulted in men losing out on positions they would have earned outright, had quotas not been introduced to the system (Advantages and Disadvantages of Legislated Quotas for Women's Representation, n.d.). The Challenge Ahead Despite the use of gender quotas to fill leadership positions, both in the political and corporate sectors of the society, many challenges still remain. One main challenge is that of pay equity. Although women may fill the roles as heads of companies and political leaders, the practice still remains where women are paid less to do the same jobs as men (Wright and Rogers, 2011). As it stands, there is a significant gender pay gap, women only earn 77 percent of men’s earnings around the world (Revesz, 2017).

The International Labour Organization (ILO) posits that ensuring pay equity within organisations and companies, signifies that employers value their employees thus taking us one step closer to achieving equality between men and women. The ILO further speculates that companies can address gender pay gaps by encouraging pay disclosure transparency, setting impartial conditions for pay and promotions and bringing awareness to obstacles affecting women in achieving higher positions in companies (Pay Equity: A Key Driver of Gender Equality, n.d.). Although the gender pay gap has narrowed in recent years, governments should emulate Iceland’s policy which has introduced legislation in January 2018, which imposes fines on any company or government agency that does not have government certification that there is pay equality in these organisations (Saraogi, n.d.) Therefore, governments should enact such policies and practices that help to ensure pay equity between the sexes. When this is done, it brings us closer to achieving gender equality and therefore makes the implementation of gender quotas that much more feasible and successful. According to Drude Dahlerup, gender quotas have to be analyzed in the various context of country-specific research and comparative studies are necessary for a comprehensive understanding prior to the implementation of gender quotas.

The success of gender quotas, therefore, is dependent on a thorough understanding of the political climate of a country and whether they actually lead to the empowerment of women. Conclusion The world benefits from the inputs of women. However, if women are not given a chance to share their wealth of knowledge and skills within the decision-making spheres of society – corporate and political sectors and hold positions of power, then chances are these contributions would not be recognised. Despite the achievements made through feminist theories and women’s rights movements, there is still a need to put forward legislative measures as a means to address inequalities in the twenty-first century. These inequalities can be addressed through the implementation of gender quotas. Such practices encourage better national economic growth, increased national productivity and effective governance within the global society. Further policies such as ensuring the narrowing of the gender pay gap, need to be enacted that will ensure the success of gender quotas. In conclusion, gender quotas have been able to remedy the underrepresentation of women in senior level positions in corporations and organisation, as well as in political arenas.