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
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.
ReplyDeleteLynn Wood