Appointees of convenience?

Regular readers of this column will be aware that gender equality and furthering the cause of women in business are subjects that are close to my heart. Therefore you can imagine how disappointed I felt to read about comments made by Reuben Buttigieg, President of the Malta Institute of Management, when reacting to proposals by the European Commission to have a mandatory quota of women appointed to the boards of publicly listed companies.

In Malta we have an abysmal record when it comes to appointing women on boards - very few women sit on the boards of publicly listed companies. However, believe it or not, given the circumstances, Mr Buttigieg saw fit to insult those few women who hold these posts by implying that they were appointed for reasons other than their professional capabilities.

"Many women are appointed directors for reasons of convenience. The circumstances of certain cases are far from convincing. As things are, an illiterate person may end up a director, even if the person concerned is not able to understand the responsibilities she or he must shoulder."

I found this statement absolutely appalling. It is of course a fact that there are cases of people being appointed for reasons of convenience, however this is not a phenomenon that is limited to women - lots of mediocre men have also been appointed to boards! I cannot for the life of me understand why on earth the president of the Malta Institute of Management has seen fit to cloud the issue relating to the paucity of women on boards with this totally separate and unrelated problem... unless of course he really does mean to imply that he believes that in the main women are not capable of understanding the responsibilities associated with being a director and hence by extension many of the women appointed to boards are appointed out of convenience.

"What is surely a problem is the selection process. In the case of public companies, people are generally nominated by the shareholders. Men work a lot on lobbying in this context, but women not so much. This calls for more networking by women."

Once again the president of the Malta Institute of Management does not quite get it, does he? We have a situation where the appointment system by its very nature is excluding women - because, let's face it, how many women were in the Class of 1995 at St Edward's or St Aloysius and have the network that goes with it? How many women will sit in a bar chatting about football or while away the hours shooting balls on a golf course with the boys?

Let me spell it out, Mr Buttigieg. The solution to the problem of gender inequality on boards does not lie in making women behave like men - it lies in changing the system so it does not favour one gender over the other. Most women my age who are in business or have a professional career rush off home at the end of the day to be with their kids, and they juggle a million and one things, and your patronising comments are an insult to each and every one of us.

The fact that we prioritise our families over "networking" does not make us any less competent than men, and it is unbelievable and extremely worrying that a man who is in your position cannot see that.

I have read a lot of research on the subject, with one of the more interesting being a 'Women on Boards' report, which proposes real and effective changes that can be made to redress the unbalance that currently exists on many boards worldwide.

In the foreword to the document, Lord Davies of Abersoch makes an insightful observation: "Corporate boards perform better when they include the best people who come from a range of perspectives and backgrounds.

"The boardroom is where strategic decisions are made, governance applied and risk overseen. It is therefore imperative that boards are made up of competent high-calibre individuals who together offer a mix of skills, experiences and backgrounds. Board appointments must always be made on merit, with the best-qualified person getting the job. But, given the long record of women achieving the highest qualifications and leadership positions in many walks of life, the poor representation of women on boards, relative to their male counterparts, has raised questions about whether board recruitment is in practice based on skills, experience and performance."

The report goes on to make a number of recommendations, which do not include quotas, but which also most definitely are not based on preserving the status quo and making women change their nature and behaviour to fit into a system where the odds are stacked against them.

The Malta Institute of Management would do well to take note.