Gender fatigue is the secret lassitude that grips chief executives and directors when asked for the Nth time to discuss targets, quotas, audits and reports aimed at bringing more women into the boardroom.
As this month’s first anniversary of the publication of Lord Davies’s report setting gender targets for UK companies approaches, businesses can expect a new assault.
But endlessly batting the board quota question back and forth distracts companies from the scarcity of women in their executive ranks. It is time for advocates for change to get beyond the pros and cons of quotas, and appeal to the part of the brain that should be immune to tiredness: the part that wants the business to go on growing.