La barbe...

or the Beard... this is the name of a "feminist" (?) group in France which is disturbing boards of directors with their action pro-female. They wear a beard in order to show that if this is what it takes for being part of a BoD, it is quite ridiculous and pre-historical!!!
I am not really found of this kind of action (even though I am French!) as I see it as disturbing more than really acting on finding a solution to the issue (i.e. lack of women at top levels in companies both public and private sector!)

Norway has been implementing a quota of 40% of female members for A-listed companies, and if not followed fines and more will be the results. Well, even though it has shown a net increase in the participation of females in BoD, there are still efforts to make: some companies chose to stop being A-listed in order to skip this regulation and others chose voluntarily to pay the dissuasive fine rather than getting women at those top level positions. So not understandable! Companies are ready to continue ignoring 50% of their population!

Back to "La Barbe", which expressed their will to have all women going actively on July 14 (national day in France) and put a beard on all statues representing the republic aso... Well in my view this is going a bit too far and not really showing maturity in their choice of actions. How can those narrow-minded costume-dressed men even re-think their position about women at upper echelons, when some are showing so childish actions! Not really in favour of women in my view...

So my conclusion on this topic would be that re-thinking a strategy seems necessary for this kind of action group. Follow the quite logical steps from Kotter: Create a sense of urgency, get top-managerial and people with influence involved in the project, determine a vision... Well show that it is well-thought and not only to get parity at top-level hierarchy to getting parity, but to show that companies have been missing lots of ideas, participation, commitment... by stopping women from getting access to those positions...

[to be continued...]