Cambridge Essays: The necessity of a gender quota in Jobs by Can Fahrner

Preparing for a language exam could represent a challenging process, but fructuous at the same time. In the process of developing language skills, many great ideas and topics are developed. Hence, our magazine offers the best works that were presented during the English exam preparations.

The following essay is written by Can Fahrer, a 26-year-old student currently living in southern Germany.
At the moment he is doing my Master in Economics and Business Administration at the University of Hagen. During his entire studies, he worked (and partially still working) in the social sector, dealing with mentally disabled people). In his free time, he enjoys going to the gym and hanging out with friends. If he has the time and the capacity, he simply likes to grab a book, preferably non-fictional books and read a couple of pages. Furthermore, he is interested in politics, business and economics.

The necessity of a gender quota

The necessity of a gender quota in Jobs is a highly debated topic in the western civilization. The general idea of the quota by “law” is to create fairness among the two genders in the working-area. But: can this regulation provide fairness in a primarily male dominant job or is it a political instrument of left tending politicians to push more female employees in leading positions?

One main goal is to incentivize women to work in prestigious jobs so that they can build their confidence to create their own great career and job-wise “legacy”. The overall opinion in our society of women in jobs shifts since many years. In our modern egalitarian society it is common that they (the women) want to become very successful at the workspace and do not want to be a full-time house wife and mother forever. Especially in highly industrialized
countries the birth-rate is declining over several decades. As we moved from a traditional point of view regarding the family policy to our modern understanding of family in general, there may be a link between the declining of the birth rate in wealthy nations and the view at our family construct.

It is indeed highly questionable that an obligatory gender quota dictates the Human Resources policy of any company. As mandatory rule it does not consider the qualifications of any expected new employee. What we can eventually imply from an extreme example: a company may have to give the well-paid job to a woman who does not have the same qualification as her male counterpart. A mandatory quota may negatively affect the efficiency of the market because of the fact that companies do not have the opportunity to employ regardless of their gender. The qualification does not seem to be the main reason for hiring an employee. In fact, this can lever out the fundamentals of the concept of the hierarchy of competence in any market-ruled system. In order to generate overall wealth it is necessary to have the best qualified employees in companies in any position. Consequently, it is counterproductive and
unfair to employ according to the gender.

As stated in the previous paragraphs, there should not be a regulation for a gender quota in any job because of its mandatory and discriminating character. Nonetheless, women must have the same opportunities in male–dominant workspaces like men. But companies need to have the right to employ workers as they want, as long as there is no discrimination based on gender.

*Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/hierarchie-menschen-mann-frau-2499789/, Gender Equality (WB2018IN Assgn).jpg