Politics

Gender equality set for 2016

After lengthy debate, Germany’s red-black governing coalition has set the ball rolling towards achieving women’s quotas. The bill states that sanctions will be imposed on shareholder companies that fail to achieve at least 30 percent representation of women among new members of Supervisory Boards. In such cases, seats left unoccupied because of failure to achieve the prescribed number will be left vacant. Smaller companies and the public sector should indeed increase the proportion of women’s representation and prepare regular reports on how this increase is progressing, however they are under no threat from the law if they fail to achieve their number. Manuela Schwesig (SPD) is confident that the law on women’s quotas will be passed by the Bundestag and is fully aware of the uphill task being faced . The Federal Minister for the Family stated that this law is important not only for justice in this nation, but also for its economy. The reform marks “a change in the culture and management of industry in our country”.