Universities have too few women at the top. How can they redress the balance?

It’s well known that female representation on boards in FTSE 100 companies is woefully low. The picture is sadly no different in universities, which have been set a target of 40% female representation on boards by 2020 in England. In Scotland last month, all public boards, including universities, were asked to comprise 50% women by 2020. Yet present women make up just 36% of boards and chair just 19% of them across the UK. To have any chance meeting these targets, universities will have to really step up progress over the next year.

Diversifying boards matters because a range of perspectives, expertise and experiences strengthen their effectiveness, combating unconscious bias and “groupthink”. It also helps inspire a future generation from diverse backgrounds to get involved. As universities widen participation to students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities and geographical regions, it’s important that governing bodies mirror their diversity.

Despite goodwill in higher education, and a recognition of the need for change, recruitment practices mean that the usual suspects from a narrow demographic are too often appointed boards. A recent internal survey conducted by the Leadership Foundation found that more than 50% of board vacancies are not publicly advertised, relying on the networks of board members to identify suitable candidates.

Although this can be an effective way of securing strong candidates who would have otherwise not considered a university board appointment, this isn’t democratic. It narrows the pool of candidates to those in the board’s immediate network and risks marginalising those beyond.

Potential candidates who have not built networks in higher education lack the necessary visibility and are less likely to be made aware of opportunities. Couple this the tendency to hire people like themselves – only 19% of those chairing boards are female – and the result is a hiring norm which perpetuates rather than tackles inequality.

Higher education needs to start making tangible changes to achieve board diversity. As board recruitment processes can last months, to meet the government target universities need to take action now, or female representation will fall short by 2020.

What steps can they take?

(Fonte: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-

network/2018/mar/28/universities-government-targets-female-representation-boards - adaptação)

Which of the following words or expressions can substitute the word ‘redress’ in the title, without changing the meaning of the sentence?