I recently stopped subscribing to The Spectator in protest at their feminist narratives and refusal to publish any substantive counter-narratives. But, truth be told, I’ve missed the magazine otherwise, so I’ve just taken out a new subscription (first four weeks free, then £12.99 pcm for both the print and digital editions).
My eye was caught by an article in the new edition, “Will the Netherlands’ gender quota experiment work? It starts with this:
Quotas are unpopular, especially in the liberal Netherlands. But next week its parliament is expected to impose a quota system to ensure major businesses employ more women at the highest levels.
A law is being tabled in parliament which would force listed companies to have at least a third of women (or, indeed, a third of men) on their supervisory boards. Another 5,000 Dutch companies will need to come up with ‘appropriate and ambitious’ measures for increasing female leadership. Meanwhile a government website now showcases board-ready Topvrouwen (top women) to take up these posts. And, in a real departure from the norm, there will be sanctions: if a listed company doesn’t have enough women on the board, any new male appointee will be rejected, in what is known as the ‘empty seat principle’. Firms will also be required to report gender statistics on a website open to all for scrutiny.
As you might expect, the comments are almost all opposed to the proposed law. Last night I posted some comments on the online version of the article. I immediately had the message that the comments were being moderated, and a few minutes later they disappeared. A short while ago I posted very similar comments, but this time saying that if the comments were removed, I’d post a blog piece here. The screensave of my comments is here.
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