Lovely stories about people toasting and talking to absent loved ones ❤️.
I have mixed feelings about quotas, particularly when people can identify into them. In the Arts (I am being deliberately vague here) a lot of funding comes from sources who are keen to support minorities. On the face of it that's fair enough, as by its very nature the Arts are dominated by those who can afford to live on very little, at least unless/until they become established, so having categories for other groups seems sensible, and separate groups for (eg) women seems sensible. But it doesn't stop with sex, it moves into 'gender', social class, race, area of residence, sexuality, disability, neuro-typicality and so on, and the more boxes you tick the better the chance of getting funding. Someone who claims to be in all the relevant categories (with the 'right' qualifiers), can definitely use it to their advantage, and I know, personally, people who do just that. Nobody can realistically check whether someone is bisexual (and why does it matter?), or working class, or neurodivergent, or many of the other categories - and I'm not accusing anyone of lying as such; but when it's supposed to be about talent, and getting the best for the audiences and being a fair contest, then, as I say, I have mixed feelings.
Another problem is that (up to a point because of the above) there will always be those who insist that people have got jobs/funding because of 'playing a card', so sexism and racism are perpetuated by actions intended to prevent them. I'm sure we've all heard people complain that they (or their friends and family) have lost out to someone of colour, or to a woman (or whatever), simply because whatever it was was always going to go to a candidate in a minority group. Of course that's a sexist or racist attitude, but when it's disguised as being supportive of loved ones it goes under the radar whilst keeping the 'race/sex card' narrative going, so I have mixed feelings from that side of the fence, too.
I guess the bottom line is that underlying sexism and racism are so internalised for some that nothing is likely to change their attitudes.