By Iliana Garner, Philipp Rieß, and Thora-Marit Bilz

Women rep­re­sen­ta­tion on cor­po­rate boards remains a prob­lem in many coun­tries around the world. Yet the intro­duc­tion of quo­tas to address this issue has caused debates among cur­rent and future leaders.

Nor­way was the first coun­try to intro­duce bind­ing quo­tas for women on cor­po­rate boards back in 2003, and the ini­tia­tive has been suc­cess­ful. But the recent pas­sage of a law to enforce the women’s quo­ta in Ger­many, after ear­li­er efforts didn’t seem to lead to the intend­ed con­se­quences, has reignit­ed debate about the pros and cons of quo­tas for women in the U.S. and Europe alike. “When women are not rep­re­sent­ed at the lead­er­ship table, then it’s hard for women to be rep­re­sent­ed as con­sumers of your brands,” says Robin Vogel, 56, vice pres­i­dent of glob­al strate­gic sourc­ing at the Amer­i­can can­dy com­pa­ny Mars, Inc. Hav­ing majored in engi­neer­ing at col­lege, Vogel knows first-hand how under­rep­re­sent­ed women are in cer­tain fields. But through­out her career, she just pushed on. “Walk­ing into a meet­ing room where the major­i­ty of the atten­dees are men may have impacts on a num­ber of women,” she admits. “Frankly, I got used to it.”

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