Female fund manager opposes gender quotas for startup boards
I am for diversity, I think it makes a better, stronger, more agile company.<p>However Quotas I don&#x27;t think are the answer.<p>1) because they reinforce negative stereotypes (you are only here because you are x, rather than being qualified)<p>2) They make the candidate feel like they don&#x27;t belong&#x2F;less valued<p>3) they don&#x27;t fix the underlying issues<p>Now, this is from a UK perspective, so the next points are less universal.<p>In the UK we have a training issue. It is hard as a startup to source mid&#x2F;senior &quot;diversity&quot; candidates because they are rare.<p>Therefore we as an industry need to get into schools and provide mentorship to allow children of all types to come into IT. UK society has decided that girls are not destined for IT and that needs to fucking stop.<p>since 2019, there are apprenticeships that provide 2 days a week tutoring. before you had be of a certain company size to qualify for funding. However the battle is to get enough people to apply for the apprenticeships. From a business perspective its a brilliant way to source cheap, loyal and effective workers. For companies like the financial times, its worked out pretty well. They have something like 70 apprentice&#x2F;apprentice grade employees in a tech team of 400.