Golden Skirts: Does Positive Discrimination Need It?
A week and a half ago, a scandal occurred at Google. An employee of the IT giant James Dimore sent out a ten-page manifesto to his colleagues that the problem of sexism in the field of IT is greatly exaggerated. In a paper published in Gizmodo, the author blames the company for positive discrimination and starts a long discussion about whether women can be programmers. The main argument of Damor is that the professional skills of women and men are biologically determined, and the company does not take this into account, losing competitive advantages. The text in the company was considered sexist, and Damore was fired. The American press was divided into two camps: someone supported Google for loyalty to the ideals of equality, others accused the company of violating freedom of speech. Anyway, the discussion of positive discrimination received a second wind. We understand whether Damor’s position on women in IT stands up to criticism, in what world practice is on this issue and how feminine quotas are ethical and effective.
Market rights
If positive discrimination exists somewhere, it is clearly not in Silicon Valley. According to a study by The Elephant in the Valley, 90% of local women workers interviewed encountered sexism in the workplace, 75% asked about marital status and having children at an interview, and 60% were sexually harassed. As for Google, today the share of women in the company is 19%, and the US Department of Labor in April demanded that the company provide information about the salaries of employees - the agency suspected that Google noticeably underpays women.
It is curious that Damor's letter opened Pandora’s box: more than 60 current and former employees of the company announced that they were planning to go to court, because, in their opinion, Google deliberately sends women to less-paid positions, and pays almost nothing to executives. subordinate men. According to one of the women, her annual salary was 40 thousand dollars lower than her male counterpart in the same position. The girls said they knew about at least 12 dismissals of women due to gender discrimination.
60 Google employees are planning to go to court: they say the company pays them less than men
In other words, despite the willingness to dismiss employees for sexist remarks and a love of inspirational slogans, the situation in the American IT industry is not at all that transparent. American business is not burdened with gender quotas, it implements the policy of equality only in the form of patronage - grants from large businessmen and social programs launched by large corporations. In the US, quite a lot of professional programs designed to help women. All the same, Google, a network of famous hypermarkets Wal-Mart, commercial banks and even manufacturers of diapers Huggies offer grants for female startups.
Critics of gender preferences remind that programs addressed to a specific social group violate the principle of competition. On the other hand, commercial companies have the right to manage their money as they see fit: to give it to women, cancer patients, children in developing countries or fishing lovers, if they so wish.
Women's education
The market with a human face encourages just such positive discrimination: socially responsible corporations help to eliminate the personnel imbalance that has arisen due to centuries-old stereotypes, but at the same time maintain pure competition in finding employment. Educational programs for women help achieve equality of opportunity, and not socialist equality of results.
Perhaps some of the girls programming courses "only for women" may seem demeaning gender ghetto. But no one forces them to choose such courses, fortunately, technical universities accept both men and women. But for women who are afraid of sexism or disapproval in the technical environment, specialized programs will help them feel more comfortable among like-minded people who still represent a minority against the background of men. A special program for teaching programming for girls exists even in Russia, by the way, only women can be teachers and assistants on this course, which helps create the most comfortable environment.
The proportion of female graduates in technical areas continues to be much lower than that of men. According to US federal statistics for 2015, only 20% of graduate engineers were women, among programmers this figure is even lower - 16%. The data, in principle, correlate with the number of women in Silicon Valley. Thus, it is not entirely realistic to demand equal employment in IT companies - supporters of the systems approach believe that it makes sense to concentrate on education and breaking stereotypes in the technical industry, for this purpose there are special grants and training programs.
Market and State
While the United States is still arguing about the ethics of grants for women, Europe is applying more radical measures to achieve gender equality. In 1995, the European Court of Justice ruled that an employer can apply positive discrimination if a man and a woman with the same qualifications claim one position - in this case, it is preferable to choose a woman if we are talking about a field in which there is a gender imbalance. This principle gives its results. In the European Union countries where there are no laws on positive discrimination, the number of women members of boards of directors (sample of 734 companies) is now 23%, while in 2007 there were only 11%. In countries that have approved quotas for business at the state level, these figures are higher: 44% in Iceland, 39% in Norway, 36% in France and 26% in Germany.
Norway was the first to enter quotas in the commercial sector. In 2003, a law was passed, according to which at least 40% of women should be on the board of directors. Soon this initiative was supported by Iceland, Spain and France. Germany, in turn, demanded that the supervisory boards of companies should include at least 30% of women.
The ethics of such regulations continues to raise questions, and women in senior management who have got there thanks to quotas are called "golden skirts." Studies on the results of such government intervention continue to give diametrically opposite results. For example, the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States found that Norwegian quotas did not increase the number of women in business schools and did not contribute to the reduction of wage differentials. Another study by the University of Michigan in 2011 showed that the market reacted poorly to the introduction of quotas, which caused shares of Norwegian companies to fall, and the arrival to the board of directors of supposedly less experienced and qualified women worsened the results of management.
In 2003, Norway passed a law according to which at least 40% of women should be on the boards of directors of companies
And yet, the number of Western studies that prove that a noticeable proportion of women on boards of directors helps companies increase profits has reached quite a critical mass. Another question is whether quotas are necessary for this? Statistics show that the largest number of women in managerial positions is in countries that have never introduced quotas for business. So, this year Sweden refused to introduce a 40% quota for women on the boards of directors, since their number was already 32%, that is, higher than the average for the European Union.
Moreover, quotas do not solve the problem of leadership. Thus, in Norway, among executive directors, only 6% of women can be found, a little more than in the USA, where this figure is 5% and without special quotas. Despite the forced inclusion of women on the board of directors, many European countries show modest figures among women - top managers in general. In Spain, they make up 22%, in Germany - 14%, and in Switzerland only 13%, which is below the world average - 24%. Results on boards of directors do not always apply to companies as a whole, and quotas are often criticized for focusing on top companies: opponents suggest paying more attention to the comfort of women in lower positions, for example, supporting employees-mothers in infrastructure and financially.
Interestingly, the largest number among top managers, according to the American auditing company Grant Thornton, is in Russia - about 40%. High rates of the Baltic countries, China, Poland and Armenia. Columnist Time Maria Saab connects this with the legacy of socialist regimes, in which great attention was paid to gender equality in the workplace, even earlier equality came into education and politics. However, in such countries there is often a noticeable difference in salaries. Thus, in Russia, women managers receive an average of 30% less than men.
From Rwanda to Norway
The countries of the communist bloc did not introduce quotas in commercial companies (they simply did not exist), but they were used in politics. In the USSR, the proportion of women in the Supreme Soviet was to be at least 33%, and 50% in local councils — and this prescription was respected. At the same time, the Soviet Union is an excellent evidence of how practice may diverge from theory. Despite quotas for the legislature, there was practically no women in the executive branch. After the collapse of the USSR, quotas were abolished, and now the number of women in the left-wing parliamentary party of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is only 4%, and this roughly reflects the general situation with women in the legislative branch - let the Federation Council be headed by Valentina Matvienko.
Supporters of political quotas remind that politics is not a business and in this sphere not only the principle of meritocracy should be observed (power should be in the hands of the most capable and qualified), but also the principle of representation. Countries apply geographical quotas that ensure representation in the lower house of parliament for each region - according to the same logic, one can speak of even gender representation: its supporters believe that women can defend the social rights of compatriots about whom men do not always think. Opponents of quotas are confident that they destroy the electoral principle of democracy. Sometimes a voluntary decision of the parties themselves becomes a compromise - but many questions still remain to it.
In Russia, women managers receive an average of 30% less than men
In some countries, quotas become a voluntary decision of parties - in this way they went, for example, in Norway. The Socialist Left Party, the Center Party and the Christian Democratic Party decided that there should be at least 40% of women on the lists of their candidates for parliament - as a result, the current Norwegian parliament is almost half of women. In Spain, in 2007, quotas were introduced from above - by the adoption of a law under which parties are required to submit 40% of women candidates in local elections. And in South Korea, there is not only a federal fifty percent quota for women candidates from parties (every odd candidate in the party list must be a woman), but also incentive measures. The party can nominate only five female candidates in single-member constituencies to receive financial assistance from the state for the election campaign. Today political quotas exist in one form or another in 45 countries around the world.
One should not think that only the most prosperous countries are adopting quotas - ostensibly for the absence of other problems. Quotas are used in both Norway and Rwanda (where the number of women in parliament is a record 61%). In a number of European countries, women's representation in politics is achieved institutionally: special programs, the adoption of laws on gender equality, and even the creation of specialized ministries. For example, in the UK there is the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Equal Opportunities, and in Germany, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth solves the women's issue.
However, there is a problem here too: quotas can only be a beautiful curtsy, but if politics simulates the electoral process, for example, native politicians or women who play a decorative role will come to these places. This happened in Iraq, according to the specialist in international relations, Isobel Coleman, where they introduced a quota for women in parliament of 25%, and as a result, the party lists were flooded with relatives of already existing politicians. In her opinion, in countries with undeveloped democracy one can see a disproportionate number of women politicians involved in health care and education, while other spheres remain the monopoly of men. Quotas or any other positive discrimination will never work in an environment where basic human rights are not respected, and the rhetoric in defense of women remains pure populism. This applies to both individual corporations and authoritarian political systems.
Photo: Moscow Coding School / Facebook, Google Press Corner
