The CEO of Xerox says corporate gender quotas won’t work.

Ursula Burns – Xerox CEO and often considered one of the most powerful women in the world – says the massive disparity on the corporate level will be fixed by cultural change, not legislation.

“Half the world are women, but they are literally in single-digit numbers in the C-suite,” Burns said in a recent interview.

“How in the hell can that be?”

Women currently hold about 11 per cent of board seats at the world’s largest companies.

In Norway — where there is a gender quota for large corporations — women account for 36.1 per cent of board members.

Burns says this is a result of different corporate mentality, not the imposed quota.

He claim is backed by figures in Dubai, where a law obliging government departments and companies to include women on their boards has only led to women making up 1.5 per cent of seats.

“You can keep setting all the quotas you want, and you can make a law, and still the overwhelming majority of the women would never have access to those seats,” said Burns.

The Xerox boss says companies need to develop a genuine and dedicated interest in having women in executive positions.

Until this time, big corporations worldwide will continue to deprive themselves of valuable input, due to a culture that acknowledges slightly over half the population.