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LILIANE Bettencourt, heiress to L'Oreal and the world's second-richest woman, savoured her return to grace after a year of torment as she was re-elected last night to the board of the French cosmetics giant founded by her father. Ok, so talking about gender on boards...should we also be looking at age? Is 89 too old to be re-introduced back to the boardroom? They may have age and experience but really, do they have anything left to give?

Two-thirds of directors are against the introduction of a formal quota system to increase the number of women on boards in Ireland, according to a survey conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes.

Opinion piece by Joycelynne Scutt "Mentoring is in the news. Businesswomen say nothing will change in top levels of management without it. Women need mentoring to gain board appointments, to become government department heads and CEOs, to succeed at any higher post. Now, with mentoring such a byword, even businesses are told that their boards are obsolete, that they require mentors instead. In that scenario, boards are out. Mentors are in".

In a recent proposal put forward to Canada's major banks, Quebec-based shareholder rights group MÉDAC (Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires) asked the Big Five to commit to achieving equal representation between men and women on their boards in 10 years. Shareholders strongly rejected the proposals, with an average of just 11% voting in favour. A recent poll by Compas Inc. showed that Canadian CEOs didn't like the idea, either, with just 4% expressing support for MÉDAC's proposal. Is this universal or do Australian CEOs think differently?

The latest percentage of women on ASX 200 boards is 12.8% (9 August 2011) A total of 70 boards in the ASX 200 still do not have any women

Women on Boards (WOB) is the leading advocate for improving gender diversity on Australian boards.

Former Sex discrimination commissioner Pru Goward says any move to impose quotas for women on corporate boards would undermine women's rights.

The Australian Institute of Management will host the Great Debate - "Do Real Women Need Quotas?" on June 3.

Article by Edward E. Lawler III. Management Reset

100th International Women's Day: Women still marking time in the boardroom

Also a great video on this website...go take a look!

I contacted Suzi last week but haven't heard back re promotional opps. However she is supporting the Women On Boards Conference (who also have GD on their website) so I imagine we will get some visibility through this week's ABN newsletter topic. We should link to this one asap if possible.

Article by John Flemming