Should companies be forced to fired men and replace them with women?

Question

Should companies be forced to fired men and replace them with women simply because there aren't enough women in the company?

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,2262450,00.html

"Imagine you're one of the 13 men on this all-male board of a large company and are told five of you must go to be replaced by women. Unlikely? Not in Norway, where they're enforcing a law that 40% of directors must be female."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aS.J0gCborKs&refer=europe

"Under a Norwegian law passed four years ago, women must fill 40 percent of the country's corporate board seats effective tomorrow. Most companies already have complied under media pressure and the threat of being shut down by the government."

Answer 1

No. Enforcing these quotas will only create resentment from the males who have been displaced, thereby further fueling the initial problem. Only time and education should change the ratio.

Answer 2

Ridiculous.

Elf, if 50% of women want to be sahms, how can we be expected to go half and half in the workplace?

Answer 3

NEW ANSWER:  I don't like quotas either.  {maybe you missed my saying that previously}

But what's your point?

That quotas are bad, or that this company should not have to obey the law because the law is a bad law?

___

<Nice to see how people judge an answer based on it's opening line.  Read to the end, please.>

40% is still not even equal.  What's your objection to this quota?

They were given 4 years to come to compliance with the law. That's certainly a reasonable amount of time to make changes...even if that includes grooming some women to become non-executive directors for a bank....now they will face consequences.  

I don't like it when our nation passes laws that are unfavorable to my preferences either, but I comply with the law or I expect to face legal consequences.

Now, I do not agree with quotes personally, and I have my own objections to this situation in Norway, but  really, what is your specific objection here?

EDIT:  Eoghan,  I don't like quotas either.  I'm asking for some clarification about which part of this the questioner objectionable.    

I'm playing devil's advocate in terms of enforcement.  

If you are a business owner and your governement passes a law giving you 4 years grace before reaching compliance -- what is unreasonable about that?    I see the challenge presented in the article...I agree that quotas set up a business to place unqualified people in key positions...but really-- in this case how could they **not** recruit the women they needed and train/groom them for the positions when they saw it coming?  In 4 years there are still no women qualified?   Something is fishy about that.

Answer 4

Well, that's not neighborly.  Doesn't say much for equal rights either.

Answer 5

No, that's stupid!

Company's shouldn't be forced to fire anyone, especially if they're good workers.

Employers should choose people who are most qualified, even if they're all men in the job, or vice versa, gender shouldn't be an issue.

Answer 6

/facepalm.

To me, this severely undermines every woman (AND man) who has ever worked hard to EARN what they have.  This isn't equality, this is idiocy.

Edit: And Elf #3, for the record, I DID read those articles.  To the end.  My answer does not change.

Answer 7

Speaking from personal experience Norway is a vastly different country than the U.S.

To me this isn't shocking in the slightest. I've seen happen first hand on many occasions. However I do not see this ever happening in the U.S. or even England or Canada. Our cultures, our lifestyles, the way we raise our children, what our countries were founded on, etc. are all very different than Norway. They have a ridiculous amount of discrimination in the workforce and unfortunately reverse discrimination is the only way they've been able to somewhat counteract this.

Norwegians are nice people and it's a fantastic country in general but their ideas on how things should be are very different than the U.S. or even other European countries.

The whole concept of making these kind of laws is incredibly dumb among other things but it's the way their country is and it unfortunately is what has worked for them.

Answer 8

so you're gonna tell me that five qualified men have to be fired to be replaced by women who don't know what the f*** they're doing? if you say yes then you are a bigger idiot than I thought you were.

Answer 9

In Norway, they have staggering amounts of sexual discrimination in the workforce.  Once that discrimination is removed, those laws will be removed because they'll be null and void.  

Admittedly, they shouldn't have those laws and they certainly shouldn't have had the situation that CAUSED those laws, but what is simply is and there isn't much that we, as people from different countries, can do about it.

Besides, for years, people have turned down qualified women because of THEIR gender.  How is this any different?

Answer 10

Sure, I move that the government start firing men who work as garbage collectors and soldiers so that women can immediately start replacing them. Equal is equal after all.

Answer 11

That really seems absurd. I don't believe this should be law. Positions should be filled by those qualified to fill them - not because they need to make it "fair".