No gender quotas – website boss

The boss of travel website Booking.com has warned against political intervention to boost the number of women business executives.

Booking.com chief executive Gillian Tans said companies were better placed to tackle gender inequality, and that officially enforced female quotas could lead to fewer women reaching senior positions.

“I think if you have political action where they ask for a certain percentage of women then the number really goes down,” Tans said.

“In my experience it is very complicated because you always need to make sure you have the best people for the job.

“I think companies need to take more ownership over the gender gap themselves because if everybody does that then overall it will improve. That takes a lot of work and we have seen that at Booking as well.

“It’s not as if you can do one thing and it will make a big improvement. It’s a number of things internally and externally that you need to focus on.”

The recent World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report showed the disparity between men and women had worsened, with the average gap increasing to 32 per cent compared to 31.7 per cent in the previous year.

The UK government has tried to reduce the gender gap in Britain’s finance industry through its Women in Finance charter.