The representation of women on boards of major companies publicly listed in the European Union (EU) rose in the early months of this year as regulators and politicians sought to foster gender diversity at large corporations.
The percentage of women on boards of EU-based public companies rose to 16.6 percent in April 2013 from 15.8 percent in October 2012, the European Commission (EC) says in a press release. Women also now account for 17.6 percent of non-executive directors, an increase from 16.7 percent, and for 11 percent of senior executives, up from 10.2 percent.
The commission attributes the increase in part to binding measures adopted in France, Italy and the Netherlands to increase the number of women on corporate boards as well as increasing public discussion of the issue and a European draft law that seeks to ensure at least 40 percent of directors are women.
‘The cracks are starting to show in the glass ceiling,’ says Viviane Reding, the EC’s justice commissioner, in a news release. ‘More and more companies are competing to attract the best female talent. They know that if they want to remain competitive in a globalized economy, they cannot afford to ignore the skills and talent of women. We have got the ball rolling.’
Women account for 29 percent of directors of major public companies in both Latvia and Finland, 27 percent in France, 24 percent in the Netherlands, 20 percent in Germany, 21 percent in Denmark, 18 percent in the UK and 13 percent in Italy. Malta has the lowest female representation among the 27 EU member states, at 3 percent, followed by Greece and Portugal, at 7 percent each.
But women account for only 4 percent of president positions at the largest 587 publicly listed companies in the EU, the data shows. Female presidents are most common in the Czech Republic, where they account for 23 percent of the total. There are no female presidents at major companies listed in Ireland, the UK, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Romania and several other countries.
