You know it must be a good Bill if REAL Women of Canada oppose it

Sen. Celine Hervieux-Payette, a former Montreal business executive, is behind Bill S-206. The bill would require all publicly traded companies, banks, insurance companies and trust companies to have 50% of their board of directors made up of women.

Hervieux-Payette points to a 2009 study that shows women make up just 14% of corporate board members, an increase from 13% in 2007.

REAL Women of Canada, a lobby group that calls for equality without the use of legislation, told QMI Agency it would never back such a bill.  “We want to be hired because we are qualified, not because we are women,” said Diane Watts of REAL Women.

Sure, don’t we all want that?  But until women are considered as qualified as men, gender bias will continue to favour men since there is still a very real prejudice against women as equally capable leaders, business people, politicians, heads of families, CEOs...

One of the opponents of this Bill has kindly taken the time to comment on the above article, showing us that there is a real need for Payette’s Bill (emphasis mine):

Neil Bird writes:  This is nuts!, you won't like my observations which are real! We need the best persons for the job regardless of gender! Females seem to screw up financially more often, make poor decisions in selecting spouses & friends. they also do not seem to know or care about basic manners so are a greater endangerment to staff and customers than males are. They have a reputation for being poor bosses. Many seem to have a 'gender' chip on their shoulders, justified or not, does not make for a good workplace. If we hand females all they want based on gender and not performance, where is the challenge and reward of achievement, just as one does not give top wages and position to a new grad? I knew you would not like reality!

Uh-huh

Well, Neil, based on what you think women are capable of, what’s the point fore them to even try to do more than breed, serve and obey men (who know so much more about finance, decision making, healthy marriage, choosing friends, and heavens!  Good manners!), and just shut the fuck up and be grateful that the invisible sky monster created the male to keep them in line and to make sure they don’t screw up too much.

It is because attitudes like Neil’s towards women still exist that we need legislation that will allow skilled, intelligent, capable women the same opportunities as men.  More importantly, this type of legislation is necessary so that boards have representatives who understand the needs of  the public they serve  - half of that public being female.