From today’s FT: EU
pushes 40% quota for women on boards:
Europe’s listed companies will be
forced to reserve at least 40 per cent of their non-executive director board
seats for women by 2020 or face fines and other sanctions under a proposal
being drafted by the European Commission.The legislation, a copy of which was
obtained by the Financial Times, is aimed at what EU officials believe is a
severe gender imbalance across the bloc’s 27 member states. EU data shows that
in January, women represented only 13.7 per cent of board positions in large
listed companies.
Several EU countries (e.g. France, Italy, Spain, and the
Netherlands, according to the article) have already adopted national gender
quotas. Other countries, such as
Britain and Sweden, have strongly resisted the notion of gender quotas for
boards.
If passed, the legislation will mean significant change for
the boardrooms of many European countries. Above are figures from Catalyst on the percentage of
board seats held by women in various EU countries as of 2012, with Norway,
Sweden, and Finland (not surprisingly) far in the lead. For most of Europe, however, a 40%
target is a substantial increase over current numbers.
I haven’t blogged much about board diversity lately, not
because I’ve become uninterested, but because I’ve been working on a book on
the topic. And like academic
authors everywhere (maybe all authors
everywhere?) we’re a bit behind, though not too much. Anyway, as I start to get my head above water I hope to be
back with more posts soon on the topic.