Norwegen: Frauenquote als Maßnahme der Frauenförderung gescheitert

Unter den Argumenten, mit denen LobbyistInnen, PolitikerInnen und JournalistInnen Deutschland die Frauenquote aufdrücken wollen, sticht eines immer wieder hervor: Die in Norwegen eingeführte Zwangsquote wird als leuchtendes Vorbild dargestellt. Dumm nur, dass sich inzwischen gezeigt hat, wie wenig Erfolg diese Quote trotz aller damit verbundenen Nachteile sogar mit dem damit angestrebten Ziel aufweist. "Quota system failing to bridge Norway’s corporate gender gap" titelt jetzt die Financial Post. Ein Auszug:

Norway’s historic quota system for supervisory boards — a model that is now being copied elsewhere in Europe — is doing little to push women into executive roles. None of the 25 biggest companies on the Oslo bourse has a female chief executive, and only one has a woman as chief financial officer.

"You can’t just say that if you have more women in politics, things are getting better," Kristin Clemet, head of Oslo-based research institute Civita and a former education minister, said in an interview at her office behind the Norwegian parliament. "That’s just too easy."

(...) Part of the reason women aren’t making it to the top of Norway’s corporate ladder stems from their under-representation in the private sector, said Mari Teigen, research director at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo.

(...) While research is unclear on why more women have made it into the Norwegian public sector versus corporations, Clemet said women are reluctant to go into the private sector because those jobs aren’t amenable to family life.

"Women are choosing this more than they are hitting a glass ceiling," she said. Women prefer jobs with flexible routines and the option for part-time work, something the public sector can offer, she said.

About 43 percent of women in Norway work part-time, compared to 13 percent of men, according to Statistics Norway.

The figures raise questions around Norway’s experiment with gender quotas. Since the country in 2003 enforced a law stipulating that women make up at least 40 percent of corporate boards at listed companies with more than 10 employees, other European nations have followed. Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Iceland either plan to, or have already implemented similar policies. The European Commission in 2012 proposed a quota system to bring more women onto corporate boards.

Solberg, the incoming premier, and Clemet both say Norway’s quota rule hasn’t led to any significant improvements. Not only has it done little to help women succeed in the top ranks of the corporate sphere, studies show there’s no clear evidence that companies with more women are benefiting, Clemet said, citing New York-based consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and the Norwegian School of Management.

Some research found that board competency decreased after inexperienced women were rushed in to fulfill the quota.

Eben die Argumente, die Männerrechtler und Feminismuskritiker immer wieder vorbringen – für fehlende Managerinnen ist keine patriarchale Unterdrückung verantwortlich, sondern die Lebensentscheidungen der allermeisten Frauen – erweisen sich einmal mehr als zutreffend. Bereiten wir uns also schon einmal auf eine breite Berichterstattung in unseren Medien über das Scheitern der Frauenquote in Norwegen vor. (Ich mache natürlich nur Spaß.)