[bnoordhuis]

I've been going back and forth on this.

On the one hand, I feel that positive discrimination is just as bad as the other kind and that its proponents are not thinking things through as clearly as they should.

On the other hand, board members are humans too. Given the choice, and whether consciously or unconsciously, they will typically elect people much like themselves, because that's the kind of person they can understand and relate to. It's an understandable human trait but it does perpetuate the status quo.

I do wish the focus was less on gender and more on diversity in general. We have sizable ethnic minorities in the Netherlands but they are quite underrepresented in upper management and I'm not sure it can be fully explained by the socioeconomic and education gap.

[techlibertarian]

> Given the choice, and whether consciously or unconsciously, they will typically elect people much like themselves, because that's the kind of person they can understand and relate to.

The issue is at what point does the need for diversity kick in? If I start a startup right now with a friend, a person who is much like myself, very few people will criticize us for diversity issues at 2 people. But if we continue to hire friends, when does it become a diversity issue that needs addressing?

[warp]

I think a good moment to start thinking about this is when you are legally required to have an Ondernemingsraad [1]. Which is at 50 employees.

It's an arbitrary threshold, but seems like a good point in the life of a company where it transitions from a small company to a larger one, where you need to start making various informal policies and company customs and values more formal.

[1] http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondernemingsraad_%28Nederland%2...