The carrot ... or the stick: keep the debate over quotas going so that the end goal becomes more believable.

• Author: Temin, Davia

IT'S AN AGE-OLD DILEMMA: Which works better, the carrot or the stick? The idealists among us will usually answer, the carrot; the pragmatists, the stick. As for myself, forever caught between the two, I answer both.

So, how does this apply to women on boards, and whether the U.S. should adopt Norway's--and perhaps France's--40% women on boards quota?

Clearly the economic argument for 40% of corporate boards to be comprised of women is being made in many ways. It is made quoting statistics on ROI. And it has been opined that the meltdown of the last two years might not have happened in the same way if women--the ultimate outsiders and thus better able to ask tough questions--were present in higher percentages on boards. But, have these "carrot" arguments worked? Not really, since percentages have not climbed significantly in the past four years.

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I wish that carrots were sufficient. They are not. But sticks are unrealistic.

Our U.S. corporate culture abhors any stray or "needless" rules added to what is already an overwhelming multitude. So, I daresay that a quota (stick) will never happen here. But, the serious conversation about a quota might be extremely useful. Because the more we discuss the vision, the more we make the motion, debate, argue and posture, the more the vision takes hold of our subconscious.

In fact, new neuroscientific research tells us that...