Female Delegates At Major Leadership Conference Vote Against Boardroom Quotas

70 per cent of delegates voted against quotas for women in the boardroom

Seventy per cent of delegates at a major women’s leadership conference have voted against the introduction of quotas to get women in the boardroom.

Although women make up 35 percent of the global workforce only 24 percent hold senior management roles, leading many to call for the introduction of quotas. Furthermore, the event saw the release of The Grant Thorton International Business report which outlined that the overall median of female executives was 7.1 per cent at successful companies and 3.1 per cent at unsuccessful companies.

Linda Brown, director of IoD Northern Ireland, noted that The Grant Thornton International Business report indicated statistics in support of women in senior roles from a McKinsey & Company review: ‘A recent McKinsey review of 100 companies found that those with three or more women in top positions on the executive committee or board scored higher than their peers.’

Brown urged that the majority of women want to be appointed to board positions on merit as opposed to making up the numbers in a compulsory quota.

The event saw in attendance almost 300 delegates and a number of influential business leaders speaking.

Also in attendance was Pauline Quigley, head of Vodafone Northern Ireland, who said: ‘We are keen to see an increasing percentage of females taking on leadership positions in all sectors of the economy.’ Quigley also noticed that the high number of women in attendance at the conference indicated the keen interest women have in leadership in Northern Ireland.

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