Joeri Sol
Woman Capital: Breaking the glass ceiling* According to popular opinion the recent financial crisis would have been less severe, if there would have been a higher percentage of women in top positions.1 On the 21st October of 2008, about 30 leading Dutch businesswomen wrote an appeal to the Dutch minister of Finance. They published a full page add in the leading Dutch financial newspaper, in which they called for a change in the gender composition of the average boardroom:
“The current crisis presses us to make some fundamental changes promptly. These changes have to based on new values, on regained trust and on appointments that indicate stability and transparency. For this, we need to appeal to all sources of knowledge and all our top talents – not only to those of one halve.” (See Appendix 1 for the entire appeal in Dutch) Among these leading businesswomen who initiated the call to the minister were Bercan Günel and Carine van der Laan. Günel and van der Laan are the founders of an executive search company called Woman Capital. Woman Capital has the mission to promote gender diversity in the top positions in business; given the current state, this means increasing the percentage of women at the top. With initiatives like the example above, Günel and van der Laan have *
This case study has been prepared by Joeri Sol for the Amsterdam Center of Enterpreneurship and the University of Amsterdam, after interviews with Bercan Günel. The case study can be used to invoke class discussions. Note that, cases are not intended to as endorsements or illustrations of effective management practices. For correspondence about the case use:
[email protected].
Copyright © 2011 University of Amsterdam. The content of this case study may not be copied for commercial use or distribution without written consent of the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Center of Entrepreneurship, or the author.
contributed to put gender equality in business back on the public agenda. In the meanwhile, Woman Capital managed to become a profitable venture, even during the financial crisis. However, the underrepresentation of women in top positions has hardly changed since their start in 2006. Surely, to change the gender composition across boards will be a time-consuming process, but Woman Capital would like to become more than a drop in the ocean. How can Woman Capital spend their efforts best to break the glass ceiling? And does their profit motive help or harm their social mission?
Background In the Netherlands, like in most countries, women are strongly underrepresented in top positions. For instance, in 2008, of all ministerial positions worldwide only 16% were held by women.2 In business, this underrepresentation is possibly even more shocking. For example, in a large sample of publicly traded firms in the US only 2.5% of the five highest-paid positions are held by women. Similar patterns are found in other countries. In the Netherland, a sample of roughly 200 publicly traded firms revealed that women make up only 4.8% of the boards of directors and 8.8% of the supervisory boards.3 There are numerous explanations for this asymmetric representation at the top. The ‘usual suspects’ include discrimination, lower human capital accumulation due to maternity leave, gender differences in competitiveness, or a difference in the preferences over one’s work-life balance. In addition, there are a number of more subtle explanations, such as a gender bias in network activities or a mismatch in the roles that people ascribe to leaders and to women.4 Finally, according to Woman Capital, most executive search companies lack experience and the network when it comes to approaching female candidates. As a result of this last point, it may seem that there are few suitable female candidates around. This sentiment was expressed especially strong in an interview with an ex-CEO of Phillips, who had said that there were not enough ambitious women in the Netherlands.5 This remark triggered Bercan Günel. Günel, who was a successful businesswoman herself, knew plenty talented women in her professional network. She was convinced that the shortage of ambitious women was a grotesque misconception. The gap in the perceived availability of qualified women and her
experience fascinated her and led her to surround herself with an increasing number of female leaders. Besides this, Günel started to get more involved in the public debate about the need for diversity in boardrooms. As a result of her noticeable contributions, Günel was approached by Carien van der Laan. Van der Laan and Günel had shared concerns about the gender imbalance across the boardrooms in the Netherlands, and the two businesswomen decided that they should join forces to try to change this situation.
The founders Both Günel and van der Laan had considerable experience in the top management of several large companies. Günel was raised and educated in Istanbul. After completing her business administration studies, she started working for the accountancy firm Arthur Andersen; first in Istanbul, and in 1989 she moved to the Netherlands. It came as a big surprise to Günel that the gender imbalance at Arthur Andersen was more striking in the Netherlands than that it was in Turkey. Later, Günel held positions such as CFO at Brunel, was the director of a recruiting company, Schoefers BV, and she took place in several boards of recommendation. Van der Laan was born in the Netherlands, but moved to the United States at an early age. She did her primary school and high school in Syracuse and returned to the Netherlands to study law in Utrecht. After practicing law for couple of years, she went back to the US to do a MBA at the Harvard Business School. She remained active for the Harvard Business School Club of the Netherlands, where she spend twenty years in the board and chaired the organization for the last fifteen years. After her MBA, van der Laan held a number of positions at McKinsey & Company, PTT Telecom, and Versatel Nederland. In 2004, Günel and Van der Laan found a nonprofit organization called the “Women in Boards Foundation”, with the mission to promote gender diversity across boards.6 The foundation started with the organization of a symposium on “Supervisory Board Effectiveness”. The symposium addressed how boards can function optimally in compliance with the Dutch corporate governance code “Tabaksblat”.7 The event was attended by twenty board members of different companies and twenty businesswomen. The symposium had helped to raise attention for the new foundation. Moreover, the foundation successfully mediated for the
placements of several women in boardroom positions afterwards. In the first year, Günel and van der Laan did all these activities in their spare time. Late 2005 Günel had left her position of director with Schoefers BV and took a sabbatical leave to explore the opportunities for her future career. It was during this period that Van der Laan proposed to start an executive search company for women. Günel needed one month to make up her mind. It was never her intention to make a living out of promoting gender diversity, but she was passionate about the mission. One month later, van der Laan and Günel partnered up to start Woman Capital. They felt that a commercial organization would fit their mission better than the nonprofit organization they started before. Namely, executive search on a commercial basis gives firms a signal that they should strive for diversity in their boards to increase performance; whereas a non-profit structure may suggest that a more equal representation of women in boards is a form of charity.
The mission Few topics can spur a debate as lively as the persistence of the gender imbalance at the top of the labor market, especially once people start to discuss policies like the introduction of quotas for board representation. Opponents of such quotas, or less extreme policy measures, often claim that the underrepresentation results from a lack of ambitious female candidates. The two founders of Woman Capital were tired of hearing this argument and decided to put together a database of women that were suitable for board positions. Their mission stems from a desire to refute this excuse: Woman Capital has the mission to improve the visibility of female candidates for top management positions. In doing so, Günel and van der Laan hope to increase the share of women in top management; as the two entrepreneurs are convinced that having a more diverse board will improve firm performance in the long run. There is limited economic literature on the effect of gender diversity on board performance. In theory, diversity could do as much good as it can do harm: More diverse boards can benefit from a more diversified set of information, while they could suffer from increased costs of communication. Ultimately, the question whether gender diverse boards are more efficient is an empirical one. Unfortunately, there are few studies with exogenous variation in the gender composition. There are some studies that take advantage of the introduction of the Norwegian quota.8,9 This quota
required that publicly listed firms should at least have a 40% female board representation in 2008, while it was only 9% when the law was introduced in 2006. This mass influx of women had a negative effect on performance. However, this negative effect disappears once controls for age and experience of these board members are included. Moreover, the long term effects of this Norwegian quota are yet to be seen. In a recent experiment, the gender compositions of Dutch student ventures were exogenously manipulated, where male and female students were drawn from an equally talented pool.10 In this study the performance significantly increases with gender balance, where the estimated optimum is almost at the political correct 50-50 split. The inconclusive evidence of a direct efficiency gain by adopting more gender diverse boards makes it difficult to convince skeptics of the need for having equal board representation. However, a second argument in favor of gender diversity in boards is the possibility of an indirect efficiency gain, which seems highly plausible. Namely, the current absence of women evokes the familiar image of a glass ceiling.11 It is not difficult to imagine that such a conception could have a discouraging effect on some women. Thereby, the existing gender gap can lead to the destruction of human capital in lower levels of the organization. The Norwegian boards quota had the purpose to counteract such destruction of Norwegian investment in the education of women. An alternative policy to achieve the desired culture change in top management, and a less dramatic one, is to require firms to acquire information about as many male as female potential candidates for a board positions. Günel and van der Laan have endorsed both possibilities.5
Building Woman Capital Günel and van der Laan started Woman Capital in 2006. It took two months and a lot of effort to get their first lead. However, their experience with the earlier mentioned non-profit organization gave them confidence that there was demand for executive search specialized at female candidates. Moreover, one does not need a lot of leads in the executive search industry, as there are high margins on successful placements. This is because the executive search industry is highly labor intensive. A partner can only mediate for some 20 vacancies a year, as the search, the maintenance of the network, and guidance of placements, all take up a lot of time.5
In order to find these new leads, the two entrepreneurs tried to make a name for Woman Capital by focusing on content oriented promotion activities. They gave interviews for magazines, appeared on talk-shows or went to conferences, as long as they could make a case for having more gender diverse boards. These promotion activities came natural to Günel and van der Laan, who were already active in the public debate before starting Woman Capital. Their efforts were aimed at putting the gender debate higher up the public agenda, while at the same time linking the brand Woman Capital to their cause. Besides the appeal to the ex-minister of Finance, mentioned in the introduction, Woman Capital initiated the Quota-Manifest in 2009. The Quota-Manifest was intended to convince policy makers to adopt a “Norwegian” quota and soon thereafter hundreds of women and a couple of men subscribed the initiative, see Appendix 2 for the manifest. For close followers of the gender debate, Günel and van der Laan did indeed manage to make the name Woman Capital interchangeable with gender diversity in boards. This, however, has not been without risks: For example, policy proposals concerning important social issues may be scrutinized more heavily when they are proposed by a commercial organization; especially when this leads to a conflict of interest with the company’s commercial activities. In the case of Woman Capital, their long-term commitment and passion for their mission should suppress the suspicion of having a hidden agenda. Furthermore, it is questionable whether the outcome of their policy proposals would have been different, if they were proposed by non-profit organizations. In the meanwhile, these efforts have been beneficial for Woman Capital, about which Günel said that:
“We build up a great credibility when it comes to promoting diversity, as we took the issue center stage and we have been active participants in the public debate for years already. This credibility may be our strongest advantage over our competitors.”5 Besides their role in the gender diversity debate, Woman Capital made use of their network to win customers. They established a Board of Recommendation of respected businessmen that subscribe to their mission. The Board of Recommendation offered them entries into the ‘old-boys networks’. In addition, Woman Capital build a network of over 6.000 talented women from which they could draw. This helped them
to establish a track-record with a success rate of almost 90% with the vacancies for which they were asked to mediate. So, it wasn’t for long until Woman Capital carved out their niche market in the executive search business and started to acquire more leads than they could handle. Woman Capital also encountered some early setbacks. Most notably, their lobby to the ex-minister of Finance evolved into an enormous disappointment. As result of their appeal, they were asked to compile a list of talented women that were suitable for a number of positions for state-owned banks. To their great dismay, the two entrepreneurs discovered that their list was forwarded to a competitor. The ministry had thought that Woman Capital was a specialized non-profit lobby group. In the end it did not work out too well for the ministry, according to Günel, as they didn’t approach the candidates in a correct way. Some of the selected women left soon after their appointment, because of mistakes in their guidance.5
For-women-only The name Woman Capital has almost become synonymous with the call for having more gender diverse boards. In the meantime, Woman Capital is an executive search company that mediates only for women. This specialization raises some eyebrows, even with satisfied customers.12 Günel does not worry about the concerns with their specialization too much, as she believes that there are good reasons for focusing on executive search for women only:
Executive search companies have to keep in mind that talented women often need to be approached differently from men. For example, most women need more time to come to a decision, and often more information. However, this hesitation is not equivalent to a signal about the suitability for the position. Woman Capital has invested heavily in creating the talent pool of women and build up considerable experience when it comes to the guidance of female candidates.5 One objection to this specialization is often heard: Some women oppose to being selected through a company that only mediates for women, because they want to be selected based on merit and not based on their gender. According to Günel this is
hardly a serious concern. Top women know their capabilities and take their responsibility when these chances are offered to them. A prominent example of such a mindset is found in the European Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who was appointed to this position largely because she is a woman, saying:
“I’m an example of an ‘excuse appointment’ and would not have gotten the position if I had not been a woman. However, I also keep in mind that they asked me because I am capable enough for the position.”13 According to Günel, the success of Woman Capital has led to a gradual shift among their competitors, as the competition became more aware of the market potential of female candidates. In the past, the executive search by competing firms usually led to male appointments, as the incumbent companies were more specialized in the executive search for men. These incumbents recently started to include an increasing number of women in their search. Günel is quite content that the entrance of Woman Capital on the executive search market has had a positive externality for Woman Capital’s mission statement. For as now, this poses no real threat for their market position, as Woman Capital enjoys an excellent reputation. At the moment, Woman Capital operates at full capacity, with leads pilling up. Besides, Günel said that once their mission is fulfilled, there no more need for Woman Capital. However, she does not expect a gender balance across the boards in the near future.
New directions and future issues Woman Capital has become a firm with excellent reputation across the boards of Dutch publicly traded companies and they are considered as serious competition by the established executive search companies. Günel and van der Laan managed to build an organization that is financially thriving, even during the financial crisis. Their organization supports 5 employees by the summer of 2011, and they have the intention to grow in the near future. At the moment, the two partners do all the external communication and have divided their internal responsibilities. Their staff does support them with activities behind the scenes. Still, Woman Capital is need in of new partners, in case they want to achieve further growth. As mentioned a partner can only mediate for approximately 20 vacancies a year, and Woman Capital receives
more requests for mediation than the two partners can handle. Their talent pool of over 6.000 women, who can operate in the top management of various industries, should allow for further growth. With both Günel and van der Laan operating at their maximum capacity, growth in the Netherlands seems to be a luxury problem mostly. However, for further expansion Günel and van der Laan do not want to tap into their own talent pool, as they are looking for male partner to ensure diversity in their own organization. Besides further growth in the Netherlands, Woman Capital believes that there are attractive opportunities for an international expansion. Namely, the situation in the boardrooms in neighboring counties is just as male-dominated as it is in the Netherlands. Moreover, the public discussion on how to achieve more gender diverse top management seems to be more advanced in some of the neighboring countries. For example, France is working on legislation for a quota system similar to one in Norway, where French firms have 4 years to achieve a fraction of 40% women on their boards.14 Germany, and various other European countries, are considering to adopt a quota.15 According to Günel there are hardly any similar executive search initiatives elsewhere in Western Europe, which means that there may open an attractive market for female executives. In case Woman Capital desires to pursue expansion into Europe, they have to grow their organization quickly, because other companies may fill this void in the near future. In the meanwhile, the Dutch government has set a target of achieving a board representation that is at least 30% female by 2016, but this target does not specify sanctions in case firms fail to achieve the target.15 This makes it questionable whether one can expect a dramatic culture change in the Netherlands in the near future. Even though Woman Capital undertook several initiatives to promote gender equality across boards in the Netherlands, their lack of size prevents them from making a measurable impact. As changes in regulation seem unlikely, Woman Capital needs to find other ways to achieve success on both aspects of their double bottom line, but how? Should Woman Capital continue to lobby for a change through legislation, or is it better to focus exclusively on growing their organization instead?
Endnotes 1.
See for example: Sullivan, Kevin and Mary Jordan (2009), In Banking Crisis, Guys Get the Blame, Washington Post, February 11 2009. Or: Cohan, William D. (2010), Does Wall Street Need an Estrogen Injection? The New York Times Opinion Pages, April 1 2010. 2. IPU (2008), Women in Politics: 2008, poster published by Inter-Parliamentary Union and United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women. 3. For studies on the gender compensation in top position see Bertrand and Hallock (2001) for the US, Wirth (2001) for Europe, and Van Riet (2007) for the Netherlands. Bertrand, Marianne, and Kevin F. Hallock (2001), The Gender Gap in Top Corporate Jobs, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55(1): 3-21. Van Riet, W.C.M. (2007), Diversiteitsladder 2007: resultaten van een onderzoek naar de genderdiversiteit in de top van Nederlandse ondernemingen. Wirth, Linda (2001), Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management, Geneva: International Labour Office. 4. Interview with Alice Eagly during ‘NTR Leiders gezocht, aflevering 1, de vrouwelijk leider.’ 5. Interview Bercan Günel 6. “Stichting vrouwen als commissarissen.” 7. The Tabaksblat code is a set of self-imposed behavioral rules for Dutch listed firms. The code includes guidelines on transparency about remuneration of top management and accountability to the Supervisory Boards. A monitoring committee of the code reports their findings to the Dutch minister of Finance on a yearly basis. 8. The Quota Manifest in the appendix mentions research that finds a positive relation between board diversity and performance: Catalyst (in the US) and McKinsey (in Europe). See Ahern and Dittmar (2010) and Matsa and Miller (2010) for the studies on the Norwegian quota: Ahern, K. and Dittmar, A. (2010). The changing of the boards: The value e ect of a massive exogenous shock. Unpublished working paper. Matsa, D. A. and Miller, A. R. (2010). A female style in corporate leadership? Evidence from quotas. Unpublished working paper. 9. The introduction of the Norway quota was highly controversial. Ansgar Gabrielsen, minister of Minister of Trade and Industry at the time, passed this law with help of the opposition, while his own party was opposing it. He motivated his decision as follows: “My argument was not equality between the sexes… …we have invested so heavily in educating women over the last fifty years, and there was no reason to keep them outside of the most important thing of the society, namely the boards.” From an interview with Ansgar Gabrielsen during ‘NTR Leiders gezocht, aflevering 1, de vrouwelijk leider.’ 10. Hoogendoorn, Sander, Hessel Oosterbeek, Mirjam van Praag (2011), The Impact of Gender Diversity on the Performance of Business Teams: Evidence from a Field Experiment, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 2011-074/3. 11. Perhaps this feeling was expressed in the most compelling way by Shirley Chisholm, the first black Congresswoman, when she addressed the House of Representatives in 1970 to propose the Equal Rights Amendment: “As a black person, I am no stranger to race prejudice. But the truth is that in the political world I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black. Prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take year to eliminate it. But is doomed because, slowly, white America is beginning to admit that it exists. Prejudice against women is still acceptable. There is very little understanding yet of the immorality involved in double pay scale and the classification of most of the better jobs as ‘for men only’.” 12. In 2008 Woman Capital successfully mediated in the appointments of three women for board positions in Fortis. Kees Beuving, CEO at the time, speaks highly of Günel: “Bercan has an excellent network of capable women. She is a charming woman, who looks after the interests of talented women in a transparent manner.” However, he also questions whether their specialization is the most effective way of achieving their goal of promoting diversity. See the Volkskrant article: “Geen zeurkous, ze steekt haar nek uit.” http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2680/Economie/archief/article/detail/370014/2009/10/20/Geen -zeurkous-ze-steekt-haar-nek-uit.dhtml
13. A free translation of the interview with Neelie Kroes during ‘NTR Leiders gezocht, aflevering 1, de vrouwelijk leider.’ In Dutch she said: “Ik ben het voorbeeld van een excuus Truus en als ik geen vrouw was geweest was ik het absoluut niet geworden. Ik ga er vanuit dat ik ook gevraagd ben… …omdat ik capaciteiten heb op dat terrein en daar twijfel ik niet aan.” For more perspectives on the concern of being appointed because one is female, see the episode of NTR Leiders gezocht. 14. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/02/french-government-gender-equality-plan/ 15. http://www.rosadoc.be/joomla/index.php/kwesties/beheerraden/beheerraden_in_de_wetgeving .html#internationaal
Appendix 1 - Oproep aan Wouter Bos, minister van Financiën: (21 oktober 2008 - het Financieel Dagblad)
Geef nieuwe financiële sector de beste start Fouten uit het verleden zijn geen enkele garantie voor een betere toekomst. Integendeel: we blijken steeds weer in staat dezelfde fouten te maken. De noodzakelijke hervormingen van het financiële systeem moeten daarom door de best denkbare teams van bestuurders en managers worden uitgevoerd. De huidige crisis verplicht ons om nú fundamentele wijzigingen door te voeren. Die moeten zijn gebaseerd op nieuwe normen en waarden, op herwonnen vertrouwen en op benoemingen die getuigen van balans en transparantie. Er moet een beroep gedaan worden op alle aanwezige kennis en toptalenten - niet slechts op die van één helft. Wij zijn ervan overtuigd dat ook de Nederlandse financiële sector meer dan ooit behoefte heeft aan uitgebalanceerde besturen waarin mannen én vrouwen met bewezen vakkennis en bestuurskracht hun waarden gaan toevoegen aan een enorme uitdaging. Diversiteit als bewezen succesfactor zal daarbij borg staan voor de meest kansrijke aanpak. Vanuit deze visie roepen wij minister van Financiën Wouter Bos op de noodzakelijke veranderingen van de financiële sector niet in gang te zetten door snelle benoemingen vanuit het 'old boys network', maar zich juist nu door een team van onafhankelijke topmannen en topvrouwen te laten adviseren. Geef de nieuwe financiële sector de beste start die mogelijk is. Iedereen heeft er immers baat bij dat de toekomst van die sector wordt bepaald door een helder besef van zijn maatschappelijke taken. En iedereen wacht erop dat vertrouwen, betrouwbaarheid en duurzaamheid van de financiële sector terugkeren. Initiatiefnemers van deze oproep zijn: Bercan Günel MBA, partner Woman Capital; mr Carien van der Laan MBA, partner Woman Capital; mr Pauline van der Meer Mohr, managing partner Amstelbridge; mr Anita van Oss MBA, voormalig Global Head HR Private Banking ING.
Deze oproep wordt ondersteund door: mr Ruth van Andel, partner Clifford Chance LLP; prof. dr. Tineke Bahlmann, collegelid Commissariaat voor de Media en Commissaris; Dominique Bech, directielid Staalbankiers N.V.; drs. Cathy van Beek MCM, Lid en plaatsvervangende voorzitter Raad van Bestuur Nederlandse Zorgauthoriteit; Heleen van Benthem, algemeen directeur Stegeman; drs Pamela Boumeester, algemeen directeur NS Poort; drs. Dorine Burmanje, voorzitter Raad van Bestuur Kadaster; drs. Ineke Bussemaker, directeur Betalen & Sparen Rabobank Nederland; drs. Alexandra Cook-Schaapveld M.A., Head of Europe and Global Head Corporate Finance Royal Bank of Scotland; Sybilla Dekker, Voorzitter Taskforce Talent naar de Top en Commissaris; Hetty van Ee, algemeen directeur Ormit BV; Annemarie van Gaal, ondernemer en investeerder; drs. Marilou van Golstein Brouwers, Managing Director Triodos Investment Management BV; drs. Wilma van Ingen, algemeen directeur Kamer van Koophandel Oost Nederland; mr Charlotte Insinger MBA, lid Raad van Bestuur Erasmus MC; mr Cilian Jansen Verplanke, directeur Grootbedrijf Rabobank International; prof. dr. Angelien Kemna, bijzonder hoogleraar Corporate Governance Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam; mr Vera Keur, voorzitter/algemeen directeur VARA; Willemijn Maas, algemeen directeur AVRO; Monika Milz MBA, directeur Communicatie Rabobank Nederland; Jeannine Peek, algemeen directeur Content; mr Marlies Pernot, algemeen directeur Vereniging Eigen Huis; drs. Caroline Princen, Managing Director Nedstaal BV; ing. Anka Reijnen, CFO Nieuwe Steen Investments N.V.; Shula Rijxman, Chief Commercial Offi cer IDTV; drs. Fleur Rieter AAG, Directeur Legal & General Nederland; drs. Mirjam Sijmons MBA, lid Hoofdirectie ANWB; Sabijn Timmers Janssen AAG MCA, Chief Risk Offi cer DBV Verzekeringen; drs. ir. Karin Valk, algemeen directeur Nederland Omroepproductie Bedrijf (NOB); mr Els de Wind, partner Van Doorne Advocaten, Fiscalisten en Notarissen.
Appendix 2 - Quota-Manifest: (http://www.womancapital.nl/manifest/index.htm)
Het aantal vrouwen in bestuursfuncties in Nederland blijft veel te laag. Zonder een ingrijpende maatregel komt daar geen verandering in. Met een quota van 40% (uiterlijk te bereiken in 2014) voor commissariaats- en toezichtsfuncties zal een groter deel van de beschikbare topvrouwen effectief gaan bijdragen aan de verbetering van het functioneren en de resultaten van ondernemingen en andere organisaties. Het percentage vrouwen op topposities komt in Nederland al zeker tien jaar niet of nauwelijks boven de 6%
uit. Verklaringen, handvesten, codes, taskforces,
ambassadeursnetwerken en allerlei bewustwordingstrajecten hebben daar geen substantiële of duurzame verandering in gebracht. De meest optimistische schattingen geven aan dat het percentage vrouwen aan de top zal stijgen naar hooguit 12% in het jaar 2035. Zonder een ingrijpende maatregel blijft de inbreng van vrouwen aan de top derhalve ook in de volgende generaties marginaal. Het wachten is voorbij Wij hebben vele jaren (met optimisme, veel inzet en zelfreflectie) de tijd genomen, geduld getoond en vertrouwen gehad in het gezonde verstand van organisaties. Wij hebben de opvatting onderschreven dat diversiteit rust op democratische principes en ontdaan moet zijn van elke vorm van discriminatie en dwang. Wij hoopten dat organisaties wat betreft diversiteit hun verantwoordelijkheden zouden nemen. We dachten dat tijd en geduld nodig waren om benoemings- en promotieprocedures te veranderen. We verwachtten dat het met de diversiteit en met het aantal vrouwen op topposities wel goed zou komen. Tijd en geduld echter zijn als veranderingsbegrippen gedateerd. Tijd en geduld zijn op. De verwachtingen die we hadden zijn niet uitgekomen. Organisaties die commitments zijn aangegaan om meer vrouwen in de top te benoemen, zijn deze (grotendeels) niet nagekomen. Wij willen leven en werken in een samenleving waarin vrouwen en mannen gelijkwaardig zijn en worden gewaardeerd om hun eigen kwaliteiten, zienswijzen en
gedragingen. We willen dat de feminiene kwaliteiten naast en in combinatie met masculiene kwaliteiten alle ruimte krijgen. We weten dat diversiteit een bewezen succesfactor is. We weten dat gemengde teams van vrouwen en mannen – juist door de verschillen in leiderschapsstijl, invalshoeken en aanpak – de beste resultaten opleveren. We weten dat feminiene kwaliteiten zoals verbindingen maken, intuïtie en sensitiviteit organisaties sterker maken en ook transparanter. We weten dat meer vrouwen in topfuncties de bestaande afremmende eenzijdigheid zullen doorbreken. Meer vrouwen op topposities vormen ook rolmodellen om de volgende generatie vrouwen te bewegen tot meer arbeidsparticipatie. Wat wij vragen is mogelijk. In Noorwegen bestaat al enkele jaren een wettelijke quota van 40%. Dat is in drie jaar tijd bereikt en bedraagt inmiddels 45%. Alom wordt aangegeven dat deze quota organisaties en Noorwegen als geheel ten goede is gekomen. Om de vruchten van gender diversity te plukken is een kritische massa van vrouwen aan de top noodzakelijk. Wij zijn ervan overtuigd dat als vrouwen en mannen in een verhouding van ten minste 40-60% in topfuncties zitten, vrouwelijke en mannelijke kwaliteiten beter worden benut. Het functioneren en de resultaten van organisaties zullen op hogere niveaus uitkomen dan nu het geval is. De samenleving als geheel zal door deze broodnodige stimulering van de vrouwen-participatie sterker, rechtvaardiger en evenwichtiger worden. Daarom willen wij een wettelijk vastgestelde quota waardoor in maximaal vijf jaar tijd (uiterlijk in 2014) vrouwen 40% van de commissariaten en toezichtsfuncties vervullen. Deze regelgeving moet gelden voor alle beursgenoteerde bedrijven, alle overheidsinstellingen en alle publieke en semi-publieke organisaties. Invoering van de quota zal vrouwen meer zichtbaar maken. Hun plaats in toezichthoudende functies wordt meer vanzelfsprekend en gaandeweg krijgt het benoemingenbeleid voor posities in directies en raden van bestuur ook meer evenwicht.
Vrouwen zijn niet het probleem, ze zijn voor een belangrijk deel de oplossing Met dit Quota-Manifest willen wij ook definitief een streep halen door de foutieve en blokkerende opvattingen als: 'Vrouwen hebben geen ambitie’ Gelijk niet alle mannen topambities hebben, hebben ook niet alle vrouwen de ambitie om de corporate ladders te beklimmen. Toch zijn er momenteel in Nederland meer dan 6.000 vrouwen die de ambities wel hebben en nú geschikt zijn voor topfuncties.
‘Er zijn geen topvrouwen’ Topvrouwen zijn er wel. Dat ze niet worden gezien is vooral te wijten aan blinde vlekken – een quota is een prima middel om die op te lossen.
‘Vrouwen willen niet worden benoemd omdat ze vrouw zijn’ Topvrouwen zijn zich bewust van hun kwaliteiten en capaciteiten. Ze zijn terecht trots op wat ze kunnen en hebben gedaan. Zij pakken de aangereikte kansen en nemen hun verantwoordelijkheid.
‘Dat betekent dat wij concessies moeten doen aan onze kwaliteitseisen’ Neen. Ook voor vrouwen geldt ‘de beste kandidaat voor de functie’. De benoemings-procedures moeten dan wel zodanig worden ingericht dat de kwaliteit van vrouwen herkend en erkend wordt. Dat is nu niet altijd het geval.
‘Vrouwen met voldoende capaciteiten komen vanzelf bovendrijven’ Als de huidige benoemings- en selectiemechanismen worden aangepast, zullen de geschikte vrouwelijke kandidaten voor topfuncties veel sneller en duidelijker in beeld komen.
‘Quota leidt tot ontslag van mannen’ Dat hoeft niet. Als de geldende nevenfunctie-codering wordt aangepast naar ‘maximaal acht nevenfuncties voor een bestuurslid, met inbegrip van maximaal vijf
commissariaten bij beursgenoteerde ondernemingen (conform Code Tabaksblat)’, komt er vanzelf beduidend meer ruimte voor de benoemingen van topvrouwen. Quota onmisbaar ‘Vrouwen aan de top’ is een maatschappelijke en ethische kwestie. In onze huidige samenleving bestaat er een grote noodzaak tot verandering. Mede met het oplossen van de crisis bovenaan de agenda is het de plicht van politiek, ondernemers, vakbonden en aandeelhouders om elk middel in te zetten dat kan bijdragen aan een wezenlijke verbetering van organisaties en de samenleving als geheel. Juist in deze veranderingsfase zijn de inzet en de rol van vrouwen belangrijk. Zoals Einstein zei: “You cannot solve problems with the same mindset which created them”. Een quota voor vrouwen op topposities is onmisbaar. Voetnoten 1. Quota: De naam van dit manifest begint met Quota- (een bepaald aandeel) en niet met Quotum- (een evenredig deel - daar wordt in het manifest niet om gevraagd). De site www.mijnwoordenboek.nl is gevolgd die over quota zegt: een bepaald aandeel aan plaatsen, zetels of middelen dat aan een bepaalde groep moet toevallen, doorgaans volgens bepaalde regels of criteria, en met het doel een bestaand gebrek aan evenwicht te corrigeren, gewoonlijk in besluitvormingsfuncties of bij de toegang tot opleidingsmogelijkheden of banen. 2. 6%: Volgens de Nederlandse Female Board Index 2008 van dr. Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers is het aandeel vrouwelijke bestuurders en commissarissen in beursgenoteerde ondernemingen in Nederland 5,7%. 3. 12% in het jaar 2035: Volgens de projecties van McKinsey & Company, Paris in hun rapport Women Matter in 2007.. 4. Bewezen succesfactor: Onderzoeken door zowel Catalyst (in de VS) als McKinsey (in Europa) geven een positieve samenhang aan tussen diversiteit aan de top en bedrijfsresultaten; bedrijven met een diverse samenstelling aan de top leveren betere prestaties dan bedrijven die dat niet hebben.
