There are not enough women on European company boards. In an effort to solve this problem, the European Commission gave its approval to the “Women on Boards” directive after more than a decade of deliberation.

These new rules are aimed at promoting gender-balanced representation on the boards of listed companies and would require all companies listed within the EU to have at least 40% of non-executive director positions or 33% of both executive and non-executive director positions to be held by members of the underrepresented sex by 2026.

Listed companies who fail to achieve these goals within the stipulated time frame will have to review their selection process. While this initiative has been celebrated by many, it is important to consider that perhaps legislation might not be the solution to balanced gender representation, especially in a world that is becoming increasingly polarised.

Between 2012, when the initiative was first proposed, and now, the amount of women on corporate boards in the EU has increased from 13.7% to 30.6%, albeit with variations across different countries.

While many countries have already imposed some sort of quota, the 2019 European Women on Boards Gender Diversity Index shows that 2 out of the top 5 countries with the highest GDI scores (Sweden and UK) do not have mandatory quotas, while two of the 5 countries with the lowest GDI scores (Germany and Spain) have mandatory quotas.

This shows that it is quite possible to achieve more gender balance without legislation, even if more slowly. New regulations generally follow a cultural shift. Norway, one of the first countries to implement a quota, was already one of the highest-ranking countries in gender equality and had an average of over 30% of corporate boards being women.

The current trend of increased diversity as well as a better-educated and qualified female population indicates that more women will enter into decision-making positions without necessarily mandating it.

Holding high-level positions is very demanding and comes with a lot of pressure. Creating quotas that have to be filled propagates the notion that women who get these roles have gotten them not because they were better than their male counterparts but because they had to fill a quota.

On one hand, it makes it more difficult for women who truly merit this position to be respected for their merit. They would have to work much harder to overcome the scrutiny and doubts that they have gotten these positions because they were women and do not merit it.

One must also consider the possibility that in trying to bridge a divide, there is the risk of creating another divide: resentment. In a society where we want people to work together and put aside differences, gender becoming even a minor factor in selection processes overturns the work of activists for years to bridge the gender divide and risks creating a sense of resentment from those who may feel that they had been passed up on because of their gender.

Companies have the right to employ who they want and deem the best fit for a position. While it is true that having a more diverse workforce and leadership structure is good for a company, they should, however, be left to make the choice and undergo the effects of their choices, whether good or bad.

Increased government intervention in corporations prevents corporations from acting on their best judgment, taking responsibility for their choices, and being flexible and innovative in their practices as they rely more and more on government prescriptions of best practices.

It has been just over a century since women entered the workforce. It is only natural that it will take time for women to achieve high levels of representation in positions of decision-making. Despite this, many women have risen beyond the existing framework to prove that this is possible.

Today, many of the barriers, both cultural and structural, which women faced have been lifted. That the immediate results in representation cannot be seen isn't what’s most important. What is most important is that artificial barriers preventing women from achieving these heights are removed and that we imbibe a culture of meritocracy in which the best person for the job is the person that gets it. In trying to create a world for women, it is important that we do not create a world against men nor one that resents women.

This article was written by Ogechukwu Egwuatu. Ogechukwu is a writer and campaigner based in Paris. She is a policy fellow with Young Voices Europe.