Nikki Sinclaire MEP says no to quotas!

Women do not need quotas! Here I argue why quotas are a bad idea

Is the European Parliament simply stuck in the past?

This week in Strasbourg, the issue of special quotas for women to 'help them achieve' is being debated. Nothing infuriates me more than the suggestion that women are unable to compete without 'affirmative action'.

This 1960s mentality pervades in many corners of the European Paliament - in fact one sometimes stumbles over the occasional 1960s politician, as they wander the corridors of power topping up their pension funds.

Ironically, these outdated approaches actually have the opposite effect to that intended, and hold the cause of advancement of women back.

PRESS RELEASE: WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE PATRONISED BY QUOTAS

PRESS RELEASE

WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE PATRONISED BY BUSINESS BOARD QUOTAS SAYS WEST MIDLANDS MEP

Issue Date: 6^th March

The European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship has this week announced a 3 month public consultation on the issue of the numbers of women on company boards. It is widely expected that this will lead to legislative action.

Viviane Reding has called previously for companies to take voluntary steps to increase numbers of women on the boards of their companies to 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020. So far, there has been very little uptake of this and Ms Reding wants to take further action to ensure that this happens.

Currently 13.7% of the board members of the top European firms are women.

Nikki Sinclaire MEP, Independent MEP for the West Midlands is very vocal in her objection to such proposals which work on the basis of positive discrimination, something which she is very much against.

Nikki has spoken out on the week of International Women’s day (Thursday 8^th March) to slam planned legislation which will see quotas on numbers of women on company boards.

“How can it be right that women have to be patronised by quotas to be placed in these high positions, and even that men could miss out on a role that they have worked their whole lives for?

What the European Union fails to see is when you use positive discrimination in ideas such as these, that you always create victims.

Women are very much so capable to get into these important positions on company boards, and in the UK we have examples of very strong women in business who have got into their positions through merit alone”.

Nikki believes that it is other factors that should be focussed on in the debate on women and business, and the main one being childcare. Britain is ranked 15th in the world for female employment, whilst other European countries rank higher, including Denmark who are 5th in the world. The West Midlands MEP believes a different culture and attitude towards childcare is responsible for this greater female workforce,

“With a greater focus on affordable childcare for women, countries like Denmark manage to maintain an increased female workforce without the need for unnecessary quotas.

If anything, this proves that legislation should not be coming from the European Union at all. This is a member state issue which needs to be tackled by the UK government rather than faceless bureaucrats in Brussels”.

ENDS