Germany: ‘flexible quotas’ to increase the number of women on boards are about to become reality

Support from conservative MPs.  After arm wrestling for months with her colleague, Ursula von der Leyen, German Employment Minister and staunch advocate of “fixed women’s quotas” for businesses’ boards, Kristina Schröder, Families Minister in favor of “flexible quotas,” has recently won two battles.  First, Chancellor Angela Merkel and CSU leader Horst Seehofer allegedly decided to support he project, according to the Der Spiegel weekly – though nothing has been confirmed.  Secondly, the Christian-Democratic Parliament committee on SMEs (Parlementskreis Mittelstand), the largest as regards the number of MPs (145 out of 237 in total) within the CDU, has also spoken in favor of “flexible quotas.”  So far opposed to any form of quota, the MPs justified their decision by explaining that women’s education level was “equivalent, sometimes even higher than men’s,” and yet they only account for 2.7 percent of board members.  They added that, in this respect, introducing “flexible quotas” is “defendable and appropriate.”