Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Firms should ‘comply or explain’ on board diversity, says CBI

Published on December 19, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

From James Brockett in People Management:

All listed companies should be required to measure their progress on improving diversity but there should be no quotas for the number of women on boards, the CBI has argued.

In its submission to the review being carried out by Lord Davies on increasing female representation in the boardroom, the business group called for the UK corporate governance code to be revised to require listed companies to report on diversity on a “comply or explain basis”. This would mean companies reporting on their progress towards internally-set targets and having to explain if they fail to deliver.

Firms in sectors with many female employees would be expected to set themselves higher targets on female representation than in more male-dominated industries which would be starting from a lower base.

The CBI pointed out that an Australian scheme along these lines has already resulted in 27 per cent of new board appointments in 2010 being women, compared to just 5 per cent in 2009.

CBI president Helen Alexander said: “Although women make up half of the population and more than half of university graduates, they remain woefully under-represented at board level. We need to see more women progressing through the ranks and do more to keep them moving along the career pipeline into the top jobs. Schemes such as flexible working, mentoring and networking have helped, but making progress at the very top levels of business will require more sophisticated talent management. What is needed is cultural change, not quotas, ratios or tokenism.”

For more…

The Arab World’s Silent Feminist Revolution Gema Martin Munoz

Published on December 19, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Gema Martin Munoz, in Project Syndicate

Madrid – Arab societies often appear rigid and resistant to change to outsiders, because what they see is these countries’ ruling regimes, which mostly do resist development and change. But this image is nearly the opposite of reality in Arab societies, where enormous dynamism is opening doors to many types of change, albeit at different speeds and in complex, contradictory ways – particularly when change from below is held back from above.

Consider Arab women. The predominant image is of a passive, exotic, and veiled victim-woman who reacts to events instead of actively participating in them. She is an impersonal object of communal stereotypes that sustain cultural prejudices.

To read more…

Across the Atlantic: African Immigrants in the United States Diaspora

Published on December 9, 2010 in Book and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Across the Atlantic: African Immigrants in the United States Diaspora edited by Emmanuel Yewah and Dimeji Togunde is now available from the On Diversity imprint.

This book offers a fresh multidisciplinary perspective towards an understanding of African immigration to the United States diaspora, by documenting for the first time, an empirical analysis of how media and literary portrayal of the United States create impressions of America and thus the desire to migrate. It expands on how pre-departure characteristics including socialization experiences, religious traditions, and practices such as African foods, cultural festivals and African languages impact African immigrants’ adaptation and coping mechanisms amid challenges at the country of destination. It brings to the fore how African immigrants’ ethnic group identities at the country of origin determine ethnic relations and cultural integration in the society of encounter. Additionally, it explicates how the social organization of the African family influences remittance flows. Finally, the book elucidates on how Africans in Diasporas impact the reconstruction of homelands’ political identities as well as the effect of African Diaspora cyber-citizenship and cyber political activities on the conception of African national identity.

Continue reading ‘Across the Atlantic: African Immigrants in the United States Diaspora’