Tuesday 2 July 2013

"A woman with Asian-experience" and other stereotypes of board diversity

As the debate continues about increasing the diversity of composition on boards, the Norwegian experience of introducing quotas to redress the gender balance of its boards is widely cited as a key example.

Norway was the first country to introduce a quota for increasing the number of women on company boards. The legislation, introduced in 2003, required that at least 40% of both genders be represented. Non-compliant companies were faced with sanctions including forced dissolution.

It is critical to note that Norway didn’t legislate for “the boards of all listed companies to be at least 40 percent female” as is widely quoted in global media.

Instead, it introduced laws to ensure that corporate boards be composed of 40% of the under-represented gender.

The distinction is critical for the debate on gender balance in the boardroom as it removes the focus on feminism and “women’s issues” and instead forces the argument to be about equality in leadership in business and in the boardroom.

The legislation, which was introduced 10 years after the first motion for its introduction was made, was passed in 2003 by a majority of the Norwegian Parliament. It amended ss6-11a of the Norwegian Companies Act to state that both genders should be represented on boards of public limited companies, state and municipality owned companies and co-operative companies (a business organisation owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit).

In the boards of publicly-listed companies, both genders should be represented as follows: 
1.       Where there are two or three board members, both genders should be represented;

2.       Where there are four or five board members, both genders should be represented with at least two members each;

3.       Where there are six to eight board members, both genders should be represented with at least members each;

4.       Where there are nine or more members of the board, each gender should be represented with at least 40 per cent each.[i]

The balancing of gender composition on Norwegian boards was initially slow but by 2005 momentum was evident. The proportion of women in 2002 was six per cent, rising to nine per cent in 2004 and 12 per cent in 2005. Then real progress was made with 18 per cent of board seats occupied by women in 2006, 25 per cent in 2007, 36 per cent in 2008 and 40 per cent in 2009[ii].

The Norwegian experience has caused other European countries, such as Holland, Spain and Iceland, to also introduce legislation to achieve gender balance on boards.


[i] Storkvik, A., and Teigen, M., (2010) “Women on Board: The Norwegian Experience”, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, International Policy Analysis.
[ii] Teigen, M., (2008) Norwegian quota policies, paper presented at the Nineteeth Meeting of the Helsinki group on Women and Science, 4-5 November, ISF paper, 2008:12

1 comment:

  1. It is a good point, often not recognised, that the Norway quotas don't specify women. In Australia Government boards are leading the way with 38% women. In my view women will have 50% of senior executive and board positions when they do 50% of the work at home. For that to happen men will need to view other men who take a more active role at home more favourably. Then both genders will have more choices in work/life balance.
    Lynn Wood

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