Gender Quotas and Equality in Politics and Corporations: A Global Perspective - Prof. Puer, Apuntes de Derecho Mercantil

¡Descarga Gender Quotas and Equality in Politics and Corporations: A Global Perspective - Prof. Puer y más Apuntes en PDF de Derecho Mercantil solo en Docsity! CLASS TEN NOTES 1.Could the U.S. Congress require gender quotas in the election of its members? 2. The U.S. Democratic Party requires gender parity in the selection of delegates to its national convention. This is sometimes described as ‘‘voluntary quotas.’’ Does this raise Constitutional problems? Is it a good idea? Could the U.S. Congress require that all political parties nominate equal numbers of men and women? 3. At least twelve Latin American countries require minimum numbers of women be nominated to run for national office, with minimums between 20–40%. 4. In Africa, twelve nations have national legislative seats reserved for women, while four have legislative candidate quotas and seven have voluntary quotas adopted by political parties. 5. In Asia, five states have legislative seats reserved for women, while six have legislative candidate quotas and another six have voluntary quotas adopted by political parties. See Also, recall that the Indian Constitution specifically reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the lower house of Parliament and in the lower houses of state legislatures. 6. In Europe, no country has national legislative seats reserved for women, but nine have legislative candidate quotas and eighteen have voluntary quotas adopted by political parties. 7. As of 2008, two European countries had over 40 percent of their legislative seats filled by women (Sweden 47 percent, Finland 42 percent), while eight more had over 30 percent (Norway 38 percent, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium 37 percent, Spain 36 percent, Austria, Germany and Iceland 32 percent.) Eight of the ten had either voluntary party quotas or legislated quotas. Belgium, France, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain have legislated quotas that are binding on all political parties. Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall, 8. France amended its constitution in 2000 to require that half of all political candidates be women. Think about the adoption of quotas by a country like France in light of its ‘‘universalist’’ equality mandate its belief that all citizens are equal before the law and its opposition to identity classifications on the basis of race or ethnicity. Why doesn’t a law that attempts to enforce gender parity not violate this universalism? It does, held the Constitutional Council, in an earlier attempt, to institute a 25 percent quota for women in French elections. But in support of the new law, feminists argued that ‘‘women are not a group, but rather women cut across all interest groups and would not be a unified element in the legislature. In the end, advocates succeeded with this argument—that women are half of the universal, and do not constitute a group that would conflict with French universalist traditions.’’ 9. In several European states, publicly traded companies are required to have a minimum number of women on the board. Norway requires that 40 percent of corporate board seats be held by women. Iceland requires 40 percent by 2013. France requires 20 percent by 2013 and 40 percent by 2016. Spain recommends (but does not require) 40 percent by 2015. The Netherlands has no target date, but requires noncompliance be disclosed. 10. Fewer than 10 percent of the board members of publicly traded U.S. corporations are women. Should Congress require parity democracy in the selection of corporate boards? Cracking Europe's Glass Ceiling: European Parliament backs Commission's Women on Boards proposal (EQUALITY & AFFIRMATIVE ACTION) The European Parliament has voted with an overwhelming majority to back the European Commission’s proposed law to improve the gender balance in Europe’s company boardrooms. The most important points of the European Parliament's vote, building on the main pillars of the Commission's proposals: - It confirms the Commission's approach to focus on a transparent and fair selection procedure (a so-called "procedural quota") rather than introducing a fixed quantitative quota. - Small and medium-sized enterprises remain excluded from the scope of the directive but Member States are invited to support and incentivise them to significantly improve the gender balance at all levels of management and on boards. - Departing from the Commission’s original proposal, there will be no possibility for Member States to exempt companies from the law where members of the underrepresented sex make up less than 10% of the workforce. - The Parliament strengthened the provision on sanctions by adding a number of sanctions that should be obligatory, rather than indicative, as the Commission had proposed. Under the Parliament’s text, sanctions for failure to respect the provisions concerning selection procedures for board members should include exclusion from public procurement and partial exclusion from the award of funding from the European structural funds. On 14 November 2012, the Commission of Europe adopted a proposal for a directive setting a minimum objective of having 40% of the under-represented sex in non-executive board-member positions in listed companies in Europe by 2020, or 2018 for listed public undertakings. Main elements of the draft law: - If a publicly listed company in Europe does not have 40% of women among its non- executive board members, the new law will require it to introduce a new selection procedure for board members which gives priority to qualified female candidates. - The law places the emphasis firmly on qualification. Nobody will get a job on the board just because they are a woman. But no woman will be denied a job because of their gender either. - The law only applies to the supervisory boards or non-executive directors of publicly listed companies, due to their economic importance and high visibility. Small and medium enterprises are excluded. - Individual EU Member States will have to lay down appropriate and dissuasive sanctions for companies in breach of the Directive. - The law is a temporary measure. It will automatically expire in 2028. - The law also includes, as a complementary measure, a "flexi quota": an obligation for companies listed on a stock exchange to set themselves individual, self-regulatory targets regarding the representation of both sexes among executive directors to be met by 2020 (or 2018 in case of public undertakings). Companies will have to report annually on the progress made. French MPs debate new equality law The French parliament has been asked to approve a wide-ranging bill enforcing egalité for women in their personal and professional lives. (EQUALITY & AFFIRMATIVE ACTION)