The quota's supporters hope this law not only will help the few women added to corporate boards, but encourage other changes, such as increasing female representation in management and closing the wage gap.
The aim was to break up "old boy" networks and help the country make a new start in its first elections since the 1994 genocide.Such legal privileges, known as "gender-based quotas" by supporters, are catching on.
Although a committed supporter of quotas, Fagerland accepts that hard and fast rules have limitations – she describes them as "by no means perfect but still very good".
The supporters of quota presented a petition signed by 67% of the licence-holders, and both sides of the industry were invited to make detailed presentations to the Legislative Councillors.
Between the time when the Government announced its decision in 1996 and the Parliament finally approved the ITQ legislation, there was intense political lobbying by the supporters of quota and those opposed to it.
She thought that it legitimatized the idea of quotas (to its supporters, affirmative action) in a republic where, under the constitution, there could be no official acknowledgment of sexual, racial, ethnic, or religious differences.
Supporters of a quota argue that German companies, left to their own devices, are not making fast enough progress in diversifying their boards and their executive ranks: in 2012, only four per cent of executives at Germany's top two hundred companies were women.
I am a strong supporter and advocate for a gender quota, although this special measure is yet to be adopted by the government.
Italy, Germany, Austria and Sweden are the foremost supporters of quotas, but to be accepted, they need to be backed by a qualified majority of countries.
Supporters of quotas within and without the industry say most shoe manufacturers need the five years of protection to retool and recover from an import-induced slump.
The truth about Title IX is that rather than create gender equality on the field, it helped institutionalize reverse gender discrimination and quotas -- a byproduct that supporters are quick to overlook.
