Targets Not Quotas to Promote Women Leaders

Awareness about the benefits of having more female representation on corporate boards seems to have hit an all time high, yet increases in numbers have been slow and have currently reached an impasse. When we talk about board diversity, the solutions given are in the form of either ‘targets’ or ‘quotas’. In this Idea, both are examined to show why quotas may not work as intended, and how targets instead can be designed to achieve the desired benefits of gender diversity.