Gender Quotas and the Banking Royal Commission

The distribution of women and men in executive positions in the Banking Industry is unequal, as with many high earning positions. The recent Banking Royal Commission has uncovered dirt from major banks; speculation says women are the source of the problem. As quoted in an Australian Newspaper article a previous board member for a logistics company, Chris Corrigan, stated that the AMP board executive Catherine Brenner (who resigned) was only in that position due to her gender, implying that her company’s mistake was entirely hers. Essentially, recent revelations have pointed the finger at gender quotas (ensuring that executive positions are to have a certain percentage of women) and the women who are elected into these positions are underqualified. This sort of misinformation has a detrimental effect on all industries in terms of promoting women. 

Simply, gender quotas are a target distribution of all genders for a certain workplace or position. Gender quotas (also all other minority quotas including ethnicity, religion, race) are imperative in giving more women a chance to succeed in an industry. Diversity of all kinds fuel a cohesive workplace in which each person’s unique skills can be applied. It’s also valuable to have women in powerful positions to empower other women and girls to follow their ambitions. Gender quotas are a tool to amend the setbacks faced by women and other minorities that have traditionally held them back from rising to powerful positions. Either consciously or unconsciously women are regarded as less capable than men in competing for jobs and thus gender quotas are required to level the playing field. 

The overwhelming majority of bank executives are male but as soon as one woman drops the ball, women everywhere are incompetent. This is because men are assumed to be capable of performing a job and have to prove the opposite if they are incompetent. Whereas women are assumed to be not capable of carrying out a position and have to prove if they are. This doesn’t just apply to the banking industry; all occupations carry some, or all, of this burden. For instance, the scarce number of women in the Australian Military would have to endlessly prove themselves able to perform their own jobs. Following the Commission’s findings AMP has had four employees resign, three of which have been women. If the quotas aim is to fill thirty percent of executive positions with women, which may not have even been the case, why is seventy-five percent of the people targeted women? Following this haemorrhaging of board members, AMP will be searching for new members. Speculation has posed the questions of who they will elect to these positions, more perfectly qualified women or the ever-capable men. Unfortunately, the Royal Commission has correlated female representation with boardroom misconduct which may affect the new board members for AMP.

I would like to add that not many banks are joining the witch hunt for now but it’s clear that the idea of gender quotas have decayed following these unethical “revelations”. 

In summary, women aren’t considered capable of occupations they may have trained their whole life for, due to gender bias from people in positions of power. Gender quotas are a staple for industries in need of female representation not just to even to scales now but to ensure a more equitable future. It’s harder to facilitate change when the people who oppose it are the loudest, but it is imperative to ensure women are eligible to take roles in executive power. 

By: Esther David

Bibliography
https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-blog/women-are-to-blame-for-the-misconduct-revealed-in-banking-royal-commission-of-course/
https://thewest.com.au/business/boards/blame-cosy-boardrooms-not-women-for-bank-failures-ng-b88826124z
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/08/amps-three-female-non-executive-directors-to-step-down
The Weekend Australian
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