Quotas can make women more competitive in career: Union Minister Anupriya Patel

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Anupriya Patel today favoured establishing quotas for women to help them compete in mixed-gender environments and advance in leadership roles, while observing that companies and public offices with women at senior positions tend to do better.

She also said that the government is committed to 33 per cent reservation in Parliamentary and State assemblies for women through a Constitutional amendment.

"Research has shown that companies perform better during economic turbulence when they have women on their boards, and communities with women in public offices have greater investment in public goods," the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare said here at an Assocham event.

Without specifying which areas she is favouring establishing quotas for women, Patel said that one of the effective ways to help women advance in leadership positions and enhance their decision making role "could be establishing quotas".

This can increase "women's willingness to compete in competitive mixed-gender environments resulting in more qualified candidates, men and women alike, applying for competitive positions," said Patel, who herself is an SRCC (Shri Ram College of Commerce) Graduate from Delhi University.

"Also, modelling female leadership can go a long way," she added.

She was addressing the BIMSTEC-SAARC Women's Economic Forum organised by Assocham.

Patel further said that empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors is essential to build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability.