"the company has access to superior qualities such as more innovation and creativity, which results in a better performance."

I've worked in a number of factories, and I can not think of a single item in any factory that was invented or designed by a female.

I also tend to think that it would be better if there was greater worker representation on boards, rather than the gender prejuiced feminist notion that there should be positive discrimination of women.

There are now too many professional board members who rove from one company board to another, without ever actually working in the company, or getting their hands dirty.

A quick straw poll of the women in the office that I work in shows no interest in this as a policy idea. The comments back are exactly those which have been tossed around before: tokenism, the preference of appointments being based on merit etc.

So if women in general aren't interested in this as a policy, why would we put it in?

Steel,
“Men aren't asking for discriminatory laws.”
Firstly, applying your logic to race discrimination, your argument would look like this:
“White people aren’t asking for discriminatory laws.”
Secondly, it depends on their sexuality. Homosexual and transgender men DO ask for laws to protect them from discrimination.
Last, women speak out for equal rights, not special rights.

Trado,
“Personally, l dont care what gender a bunch of self-serving, blowharding corporate baord members happen to be.”
Cool. As long as female and male self-serving, blowharding corporate board members have equal opportunities.

Johnno,
“DOWN WITH FEMALE CHAUVINIST SOWS!!”
Did you say Oink?
This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed at home…
Female chauvinist sows should have equal rights to male chauvinist boars. All little piggies should have the opportunity to go to market.

UsualSuspect
You made a few good points.
We don’t need a society where women do all the care-giving but one that offers equal job opportunities for both men and women and where both also share responsibilities at home. Traditions have mostly adversely affected women but to some extend, also men.
The biggest problem in Australia is not so much the unwillingness of companies to hire women for the higher position, but the retention. The link I provided before explains more.

Celivia,

'...this is mainly due to the male dominated culture that women feel excluded from.'
How do you measure this? Golf days? Do women not play golf? Should they not?
This attitude always amuses me. I never hear anybody saying men are excluded from the home as all the daytime TV is geared towards women's taste. More men would be happier as stay at home carers if they could watch something other than Oprah and soaps.

'We don’t need a society where women do all the care-giving but one that offers equal job opportunities for both men and women and where both also share responsibilities at home. '
We have equal job opportunities, and sex-discrimination laws exist. It's for couples to decide for themselves who takes on greater responsibility of caring for children. Believe it or not, it's often the women who prefer to do this more rewarding job, rather than the nine to five slog, or 7 to 7 as it is these days.

But since you're into social engineering to get women into the workplace and to the highest positions of power, why don't we do the same for men in the home.

Why don't we have a government initiative to hand custody to all men in divorces, as men are under-represented in the role of primary carer?

With nurses and teachers, and the armed forces and university, we can legislate equal numbers of women and men must be obtained in 5 years. Maybe we can pay male teachers and nurses more, that would be a good incentive. See I never hear of affirmitive action to allow males an easier transition into traditional female roles.

Usual suspect.

I wouldnt have anything against a mandated paid paternity leave, even if there was no corresponding paid maternity leave. Obviously it would have to kick-in after breastfeeding had ceased, but would be very beneficial for most men to grasp just how demanding baby-care really is. It may result in more men being willing to be the stayhome parent for longer too.

If paying more at least initially get more men into nursing and teaching, I dont see that this is a bad thing either. In the long run salaries should align, but shorter-term incentives have their merits. The same process for women on boards would work - get them onto the boards, but they stay there on their own merits.

Of course there has been plenty of good discussion on either side, and both sides have at least some merit. Personally, I need no-one's help, although having an open-minded CEO has assisted me in my rise up the ladder. The opening dimwitted comments though goes to show that there is some need at least for the promotion of equal opportunity (yes Col, I believe that outcomes should be left to work themselves out). In my personal and professional capacity I still see some bigotted views out there, that might put the brakes on a young female who is not highly confident of herself and abilities. Usually these (generally older, but not always so) men maintain highly patronising approaches, until they realise I have just shown up their lack of knowledge in a particular area. Age is teaching me to be a little kinder and less gloating about such occurrences, so that the balance of power doesnt swing in the other direction.

US,
Neither my husband nor I switched on the TV in the daytime when at home with the kids. Do you think it’s a good role model for children to watch their vegged-out parents in front of a TV during the day? There’s far too much to do involving the care of children, including cooking healthy meals, doing mental and physical activities with the children, providing a clean environment…
Otherwise, get a DVD.

How do I measure male-dominated culture?
There has been research, e.g. CEW pointed out that this is one of the reasons for capable women walking out the door. Microsoft Australia also monitors the reasons why capable women leave.
It’s general knowledge that patriarchal structures can exclude and oppress women- it happens, albeit not everywhere.
Men as a group have a lot of power especially if they are in the vast majority.
Women can experience more obstacles than men such as lack of support, no cooperation or access to a network and information.
It’s not the only problem, of course.
Sometimes women leave too hastily rather than discussing problems at work.

I feel you’re trivialising the problem- and trivialising problems that women experience is another ‘power’ thing men do. It happens in workplaces, too, and women walk off the job.

The problem with ‘traditional’ male and female roles is that throughout history it was believed moral to subordinate males over females, and therefore work associated with masculinity has been given more value than the work to do with femininity. That’s why plumbers are valued more and get paid a good rate, and a childcare worker gets peanuts.

CountryGal,
Ideally there should be parental leave. Juggling childcare and work can put strain on parents and flexibility of use of parental leave is a must. Both fathers and mothers should get the benefit from working and caring for their children if they both want to fulfill a caring role.
Why should men be paid more than women for doing the same job? If the work is undervalued there should be a wage increase for the work, not the gender.