Corporate boards, female quotas and political theory

How should we allocate positions of power in today’s corporate sector? Aristotle argued that ‘the best flutes should be given to the best flute players’. Such thinking might lead us to reject the EU’s recent draft Directive calling for all listed companies to give at least 40% of their board memberships to women. Certainly, the proposal has been met with fierce opposition from the UK government on the grounds of efficiency as well as justice. Drawing on various perspectives from the field of political theory, Dr Jude Browne considers the debate on corporate quotas.