Some European countries impose quotas for the share of women on big firms’ boards. Germany is to join them: its main parties, negotiating a coalition after September’s election, agreed this week to require that supervisory boards be at least 30% female by 2016. Germany is a laggard when it comes to women on boards, though the numbers have been rising, as they have in places such as Britain that have no quotas. Russell Reynolds, a headhunting firm, finds that many of the new women on boards are young and are recruited from abroad. This suggests that qualified women are scarce. So Germany may also set targets for promoting women through the ranks of management.