Wooing women with quotas: will it ever work?

DAVID CAMERON wants British firms to hire at least 30 per cent women executives. But last year FTSE 100 companies managed only to increase the proportion of female directors from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Cameron is now considering imposing fixed quotas, copying a policy introduced by the Norwegian government in 2003. He is also looking at tax breaks to help working mothers "buy help" with home cleaning and babysitting. But are tax breaks and so-called ‘golden skirt' quotas the answer to workplace equality? 
Yes, we need quotas

There are not enough women in Britain's boardrooms, says an editorial in The Independent. This is agreed across the political spectrum, but how to change it is more contentious. While there are valid arguments against quotas on the grounds of tokenism, there is also evidence that in certain limited spheres, they work.

Cameron should not wait any longer. "He should introduce quotas for the boardroom before 2015 and put an end to a damaging and unjustified imbalance as quickly as possible."

No, we don't

If the Prime Minister is looking to boost his popularity with women voters, he's going the wrong way about it, says an editorial in the Daily Mail. "Female business leaders were the first to point out that women would not feel ‘equal' in boardrooms if their bosses were forced to put them there, rather than promote them on merit."

Cameron should be looking to America not Scandinavia, says Jill Kirby in The Telegraph, where female entrepreneurs own around eight million businesses. With one of the lowest levels of labour regulation of any Western economy, the lack of maternity leave and job protection appears to have boosted female ambition, says Kirby. American businesswomen don't need quotas and targets - these "sisters are doing it for themselves".

Affordable childcare would help

The high cost of childcare is still the biggest barrier to workplace equality, says an editorial in The Guardian. "From City high flyer to the school dinner lady, having children knocks a hole in women's earning capacity that is irrecoverable." If more women aren't working in the UK, maybe it is because "British childcare is the second most expensive in the OECD countries".

Rosemary Bennett in The Times says she was "touched" by Cameron's gesture that working mothers need a bit of help around the house in the form of tax breaks for cleaners and babysitters. But if there is money going spare, says Bennett, shouldn't it be spent on "the low-paid working mother who has had her child care tax credit cut and now can't afford to work". ·