Female quota of bosses rejected

The German parliament has rejected an attempt to introduce a quota for women on companies’ boards of directors – defusing for now a divisive issue for chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

Ms Merkel’s centre-right coalition has been at odds over whether to introduce a fixed quota and there are divisions within her conservative party, too.

Ms Merkel’s party scrambled to avoid an embarrassing rebellion, agreeing to pledge in its election manifesto a 30 per cent quota from 2020.