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&lt;p&gt;That&#39;s the reality that is driving Britain&#39;s latest appeal to the private and public sectors: Increase female participation on boards to promote business development.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a government-commissioned report, new guidelines urge the country&#39;s largest companies to aim for a minimum of 25 percent female representation on their boards. But the report, according to the &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt;, stops short of recommending a Norway-like quota system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Under the guidelines, companies would have to announce to shareholders by September their own targets for placing women on their boards, and state clearly how they plan to do so,&quot; reports the &lt;em&gt;Times&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The report, authored by former trade minister and former chairman of the British bank Standard Chartered Lord Mervyn Davies, also asks companies to &quot;regularly report the numbers of women sitting on their boards and the numbers of women in senior positions.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Realizing a growing gender disparity among top leadership, Norway passed a law in 2003 that stipulated at least 40 percent of every publicly-traded company&#39;s board be comprised of females.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results have been mixed, so far: While there has been a spike in female representation and a reduction in the age of the average director, it has been accompanied by stagnating growth and a drop in management experience levels.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Britain isn&#39;t the only country to follow Norway in sounding the alarm.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since Norway passed the law, several European countries have passed similar regulations, including France (40 percent in the next six years) earlier this year and Spain in 2007.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While the Davies report stops short of suggesting a quota, its findings offer a telling insight into the lack of gender equality in Britain: 18 of the top 100 U.K.-based companies have no female directors; almost half of the companies on the FTSE 250 index have no women on their boards.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Further, according to the &lt;em&gt;Times&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;In the European Union, 9.7 percent of the board members at the top 300 companies were women in 2008, according to the European Professional Women&#39;s Network. In the United States, roughly 15 percent of the board members of the Fortune 500 companies are women.In China and India, they hold about 5 percent of board seats.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Quota or no quota, the issue of female representation in the C-suite remains very real. And there are numerous surveys that consistently point to the lag.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, a 2009 Executive Leadership Council survey concluded that African-American women face serious challenges if they want that CEO chair. And a Center for Work-Life Policy report earlier this year determined that women continue to face a very resolute glass ceiling because of a lack of sponsorship from the top (Why Most Qualified Women Don&#39;t Make it Senior Leadership).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there is an alternative view to the issue as well, succinctly put by Julia Finch in the U.K newspaper &lt;em&gt;Guardian&lt;/em&gt;. According to Finch, women executives themselves are not doing enough to help other women follow in their footsteps. She writes:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;It is not a case of pulling up the drawbridge to stop other women following: they won&#39;t lower it, either, for those following behind, and help correct a situation that is clearly wrong.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Finch, the blame also extends to headhunters:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Headhunters, whose senior ranks are full of women, are equally to blame. Why don&#39;t they look beyond the usual suspects, or are they too busy kowtowing to the chairmen paying their fees?&quot; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;While Finch&#39;s argument might sound like an unsubstantiated rant, the issue of women sponsorship and a corporate culture that encourages equal representation among leadership ranks is indisputable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In retrospect, what I wrote on CNBC in March 2009 remains just as relevant today:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Maybe choosing candidates for the corner office solely on qualifications and &quot;strategic networks&quot; isn&#39;t helping us make good decisions in corporate America. Maybe the realization that a diverse group of executives results in better-rounded judgment calls and ultimately the route our economy takes is a question that must be raised in the CEO office&quot; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Relevant:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;em&gt;Guardian&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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