Brickbat: …Hear Me Roar

Norway has long required publicly listed companies to have women make up 40 percent of their board members. Now, the government is set to expand those quotas to private companies. Under a proposed law, any private company with at least 30 employees and annual revenue of at least 50 million kroner ($4.66 million) would have to have women account for at least 40 percent of its board members. The law would affect around 20,000 firms.

Comments

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Just identify as. It's like I have to think of everything.

[sarcasmic]

I'm sure that's what is happening in California right now, being that they passed laws mandating females on boards while outlawing the questioning of one's gender identity.

[Bubba Jones]

CEO identifies as a woman and also appoints his wife and mistress to the board.

Problem solved.

[Jerryskids]

What about different ages? Different heights? Different weight classes? Different hair color? Mary Anne or Ginger? Cat owner versus dog owner? Pineapple on pizza? There's a thousand equality issues we could be fighting over here. Why not just mandate that everybody on the planet belongs on the board?

[R Mac]

You had me until pineapple.

[Carey Allison]

Maybe Norway has a different corporate structure, but why would a private company (i.e., privately owned business) need a board of directors at all? Wouldn't the owner make all of the decisions or choose department heads to delegate some decisions to?

[Rossami]

Private just means that ownership is restricted, not that there's only one owner. Sole proprietorships are private entities by definition but other private entities include partnerships, family-owned businesses and any entity that simply chooses to not be listed on a stock exchange.

Whenever you have multiple owners, a Board is a useful way to ensure that all their interests are respected and that the CEO doesn't rape the company to his/her personal benefit.

[Social Justice is neither]

At the same time, which of those ownership interests are now going to be compelled to have female representation? How does that get determined?

It’s one thing when the ownership Is diffuse over possibly the whole planet, it’s another when you have 1 board seat for each institutional investor in a pre-IPO setting.

[sarcasmic]

The only difference between publicly listed and private is that anyone can buy stock in the former, while the latter is not traded on any stock markets. Structurally they are just like any other corporation.

[JFree]

why would a private company (i.e., privately owned business) need a board of directors at all?

I assume because companies have limited liability which is foisting off risks to the public. Here's info about how companies are registered in Norway

I assume that if some private company says to hell with women on the board and I ain't gonna play this gummint game, they can become a partnership or sole proprietorship.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

MaryAnn all day.

[Adans smith]

What kinda women? Real ones or ones with dicks? Or both?

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

I thought the Nordic Model was to jail those who pay for a woman's body? Oh well, I wouldn't mind a Norwegian sitting on my board, nudge, nudge.

[mad.casual]

40% women by mean density. No fat chicks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It must feel good for Norwegian board ladies to wonder if their merited their positions based mostly if not solely on the existence of their perceived vajj's.

[Longtobefree]

The only way to stop discrimination is to discriminate.
Say those who think men can be women.

[Crackers Boy]

I see a lot of current male board members wives getting jobs.

CB

[Social Justice is neither]

Nothing screams competence like filling an arbitrary government quota.

[Don't look at me!]

On the bright side, they can lower the pay with chicks on the board.

[Ajsloss]

But what color is their skin?

[markm23]

It's Norway. They're all very, very pasty white.

[Longtobefree]

Back during the 'first' wave of feminism, the way to deal with uppity women was to vastly expand the number of members on the board/committee they were whining about to make room for the women, then declare it was to big to function effectively, and form sub-committees full of men to do the actual business.

(Of course, way back then, there was a difference between men and women)

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