Do Germans need a gender quota? Germany debates requiring a percentage of women on corporate boards.

[pampango]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/germany/110216/do-germans-need-gender-quota

Within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, a fierce debate has broken out over whether male domination of Europe’s biggest economy needs to be shaken up by the imposition of a mandatory 30 percent quota for women in boardroom and executive positions.

The issue has opened up a fissure in Germany, which, despite its generally progressive political positions on many issues, maintains a surprisingly traditional view of gender roles.

Von der Leyen, 52, has seven children and is the most moderate of conservatives in Germany. She favors a mandatory 30 percent quota. Schroeder, 33, is the youngest woman ever to serve in Germany’s federal cabinet, is pregnant with her first child and has in the past clashed noisily with feminists over her perceived conservative views. She wants any quota to be voluntary.

Merkel herself blocked von der Leyen’s push, declaring through her spokesman that “there will be no legally mandated quota.” She doesn’t need an internal political battle in a year rife with key state elections, even though political insiders say she is personally in favor of a mandated quota, according to news magazine Der Spiegel.