6.3.3 Interventions that could not be linked to barriers

A number of governmental and organizational interventions were identified in this PhD research that could not be linked to one of the identified barriers. These are the governmental intervention of gender quota and the organizational interventions of: numerical targets, women on shortlists or candidate slates, a preference for women, program re-entering workforce, employee engagement survey, sabbatical, time-out and, to some extent, inclusive leadership assessment and training.

The governmental intervention gender quota and the organizational intervention numerical targets are similar, albeit that they are instigated by different institutions (i.e., governments vs. companies). The adoption of governmental gender quota often goes hand-in-hand with imposing sanctions, but this is not necessarily always the case. As has been emphasized in literature, governmental gender quota focuses mainly on changing numbers, not on changing attitudes and behavior, which was indicated in the introductory chapter of this PhD dissertation (Chapter 1). The findings in Chapter 3 concerning the Belgian gender quota show that the Belgian quota only changed the number of women in positions that were specifically targeted by the quota legislation. As indicated in Chapter 1, quotas with sanctions for non-compliance have proven to be the quickest way of increasing the number of women on corporate boards, and companies have shown that they are able to appoint women to their boards if they must. This implies that barriers no longer play a role once quota are in place. Quotas can, therefore, be an important intervention for changing the number of women on boards. However, it is also important that other interventions are in place aimed at changing behaviors and attitudes in organizations. Moreover, companies must implement organizational interventions so that women are indeed appointed. This can be done, for instance, by having organizational interventions in place with a view to eliminating bias. It is also important that women are in fact selected because they have the competencies to be appointed to corporate top positions, otherwise women risk being viewed as token women who are only appointed because of their gender.1 Besides the governmental gender quota, the investigated companies for the case study research in Chapter 5 all implemented numerical targets for women. Although these numerical targets also focus on changing numbers, they are seen as being important instruments for monitoring progress and for prioritizing the topic of women’s representation at the corporate top within the organization.

The organizational interventions to include women on shortlists or candidate slates and to express a preference for women do not really eradicate barriers, but they are indirectly related to the barrier bias. When women are included on a shortlist or candidate slate, or when a preference for women is expressed, this will increase women’s chances of being selected. These interventions also require people to be attentive during the selection process and do not, for instance, unconsciously only select people who resemble them.

An intervention encouraging women to re-enter the workforce does not necessarily increase the number of women at the corporate top, but it does increase the chances of women rejoining the workforce as such. If these women were to occupy corporate top positions in the future and if more women were to join them, these women can be powerful role models for other women, motivating them to pursue a career and to strive for corporate top positions. These women can also serve as mentors for other women and such a program can, therefore, be beneficial to women.

Chapter 5 also identified interventions that are general HR interventions with a broader scope. These interventions could not be related to any of the identified barriers. These interventions include an employee engagement survey, sabbatical and a time-out option. Although these interventions could not be linked directly to the identified barriers, they could be supportive of women. An employee engagement survey assesses to what extent people in the organization are engaged with the topic of female representation and believe it is important. The other interventions, sabbatical and a time-out, are not aimed especially at increasing the number of women in the workplace, but they can be important for women and men who wish to structure their time in a better way so that men, for instance, can take up household duties.

Other interventions identified are interventions that aim to create a gender inclusive workplace or to assess whether such a workplace exists. Women feel empowered and safe in a gender inclusive workplace. These interventions do not aim for better representation of women at the corporate top, but they do ensure that everyone feels accepted and respected within the organization. These interventions are an inclusive leadership assessment and training program, adopting gender-neutral job vacancy texts and images and awareness meetings, such as organizing a week in which more awareness is created for the topic of female representation. Several other organizational interventions were identified in Chapter 4.

As mentioned earlier, the study in Chapter 4 was exploratory and was conducted by means of a questionnaire. The companies’ answers to the questions were at times rather vague or not very specific, which made it hard to understand how these interventions work in practice and how they might be used to overcome the identified barriers. The interventions that were identified in this study could, therefore, not be related to the barriers. The following interventions were identified in the research in Chapter 4: (1) to conduct a specific search for somebody who fits the diversity profile, (2) to appoint somebody who contributes positively to meeting the diversity targets, (3) to create new positions for people who could contribute to the diversity targets, (4) to include diversity as a topic in the policy of the company, (5) to include diversity aspects in the profile for the supervisory board, (6) to implement interventions related to complying with the 30 percent target figure, (7) to measure diversity and (8) vague/no response.

The above analysis shows that some of the identified interventions cannot be related to the barriers identified in this study and do not specifically aim for more women at the corporate top. Nevertheless, they are important for making women feel respected in the workplace.