Germany: Merkel rejects workplace gender quotas

(From dw-world.de) The debate over using quotas to get more women into positions of power at companies had some crying cat fight. The labor minister and former family minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said she wanted a quota of 30 percent. Her replacement and current family minister, Kristina Schrder, said companies should set their own goals, which would then be legally binding.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel put her foot down, saying through spokesman Steffen Seibert that there would be no fixed quota.

Merkel wants to give the companies another chance to increase the number of women executives on their own terms, Seibert said. Merkel was looking for "a pragmatic solution, that didn't lose sight of the goal" of increasing the representation of women.

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