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“State-imposed quotas won’t help”

by Kate Pritchard - Thursday, 12th June 2008

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“I’m instinctively opposed to quotas,” he told us at the Real Business/CBI First Women Awards event last night. “Businesses ought – in their own interests – to say to themselves ‘we want to be fishing for talent wherever it can be found’. And I don’t think state-imposed quotas help on that.

“Companies should have the common sense to realise that if they’re missing out on half the population, they’re missing out on a lot of good things," said Lambert, pictured above with Real Business publisher Mike Bokaie.

“Yes, you need regulation to prevent abuse and exploitation. But this stuff needs to come from the ground up, not the top down. “

Lambert admits that the CBI itself has “a lot of work to do to become a more diverse organisation” but says that supporting events such as the First Women Awards is an important step in that direction.

“There was an astonishing array of winners tonight,” he said, admitting that there were one or two of his old friends in the line up. “If Julia Cleverdon, chief executive of Business in the Community, hadn’t won the Public Sector award, I would have made a noisy protest!” he joked.

He was also impressed with BAE Systems’ Rosalind Murray, winner of the Manufacturing award, who told the audience she wanted to “make a difference to the way submarines are built”.

“I was thrilled to be sitting next to Baroness Boothroyd [the first female Speaker of the House of Commons],” he said. And she regale him with any parliamentary anecdotes? “None that I dare repeat,” he quipped.

Lambert believes that businesses are getting better at recognising the value of diversity but said “there’s still a lot to be done – and there’s still a pay gap”.

For more information about the First Women Awards and details of all the winners, click here.

Tags: richard lambert, director general, cbi, confederation of british industry, first women awards, diversity, norway, quota, gender gap, female entrepreneurs, business,

1 Comments

November 07, 2008 3:21pm
Vanessa Coleman Says:

I think it would be a ridiculous idea making it compulsory for firms to employ more women in higher positions. If a woman is good at her job, then she will be able to gain the top posts. Business managers/owners want the best people for the job - regardless of sex, race or age. I think it is insulting to imply that a woman can only achieve a top position in the workplace through legislation. I would prefer to feel that I achieved it through my own effort and hard work, rather than always wonder whether I only got the job to make up the female quota within the company. I would hate the men within the company resenting me getting the job above them just because I was female. This would be the wrong decision for women. I have worked in a male dominated environment all my life and managed men of all ages and have always been shown respect and accepted in my position - my gender had nothing to do with it. There may be a number of large companies where ex-public schoolboys display male chauvinism and snobbery, but would you really want to work alongside these people anyway? (Obviously not all public school educated people have these attitudes). It is up to the women that work within these companies to change the attitude and behaviour of this minority of men. No doubt they display the same prejudices towards those from state educated schools. So where do we stop? Do we say they have to employ a percentage of people from state educated schools and universities other than the likes of Oxford and Cambridge, etc? This is about changing the arrogant views and behaviour of this minority of men. I read recently that some women working for top firms in London feel obliged to attend lapdancing bars with their male counterparts, in order to "fit in", this shows to me that these women are weak. They need a "backbone" and stand up for what they believe. No wonder they aren't getting the top positions in these companies.

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