Norway now has 44.2 percent women on boards as a result of quota legislation, but apart from the Netherlands, the rest of Europe is moving glacially slow according to the latest EuropeanPWN BoardWomen Monitor 2008.

27 June 2008

The top 300 European companies now have 9.7 percent of women on their boards, up from 8.5 percent in 2006 and 8 percent in 2004. Of a total 5,146 board seats, women occupy 501. Without Norway, the European growth rate falls back to 9.1 percent confirming the average growth rate of around 0.5 percentage points over each two year period from 2004 onwards.

“The figures illustrate that significant progress takes place in countries with quota legislation, such as Norway but not all countries appear ready to adopt such an approach which depends on both culture and context,” Mirella Visser, President of the European Professional Women’s Network, tells Expatica.

“Norway’s quota legislation is part of its Companies Act, and not the Equality Act. This means that representation of women in top echelons of corporations is seen as an economic issue and just ‘good for business’,” she says.

More female representatives at top of Dutch corporations
What is remarkable according to Visser, is the significant growth of board women in Dutch corporations; from 6.5 percent in 2006 to 12.3 percent in 2008.

“Ample press attention, a large number of private initiatives and role models speaking out in favour of the issue, seem to be having its effect. Noticeable is that a lot of companies that had no women on the board in 2006 have appointed one or two over the past years (DSM, Fortis, Reed, Rodamco, Heineken).”

UK at standstill, France below average
The UK at 11.5 percent seems to have stagnated as the percentage has hardly moved for two years ago (11.4 percent) after an initial encouraging growth rate of 1.4 percentage points from 10 percent in 2004. Growth in France is below average, resulting in 7.6 percent women on boards from 7.3 percent in 2006. Germany recorded an average growth of women on boards, from 7.2 percent in 2006 to 7.8 percent.

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