Gender equality in listed companies “stagnating”
Men still dominate the boardrooms of listed companies in the Netherlands, according to the Female Board Index 2023. The 88 listed companies just don’t manage to increase their number of female directors and supervisory directors, Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers, the professor of corporate governance behind the Index, told NRC. She spoke of “stagnation.”
Only 15 percent of listed companies’ boards of directors are women – the same as last year. Of the 30 new positions within the board of directors, four went to women. At the same time, three female directors left. A massive 61 of the 88 listed companies don’t have a single woman on their board of directors.
Women are better represented one step down on the supervisory boards. There, they hold 39 percent of the positions, also the same as last year. That meets the women’s quota of one-third of women on supervisory boards that the Dutch government implemented last year.
The government hoped that the quota would correct the imbalance between men and women in high positions – more women on supervisory boards would help appoint more women to the boards of directors. But according to Lückerath-Rovers, that’s not happening in practice.
https://nltimes.nl/2023/09/01/gender-equality-listed-companies-stagnating Gender equality in listed companies “stagnating”