Study: Women on boards in 2017

13.10.2017

The representation of women in the governing bodies of companies is still minor. From a global perspective, it has grown only moderately over the last two years to 15%. However, 96% of CEOs are men.

Some countries have applied legal regulations in the form of mandatory quotas for the representation of women in the top management of state-owned and publicly traded companies. However, there is still a world-wide debate about whether this regulation is an appropriate solution.

The European Parliament's proposal for a directive from 2012 envisaged the introduction of a 40% quota for the representation of women in supervisory boards of companies listed on European stock exchanges with more than 250 employees and a global annual turnover of more than EUR 50 million. Finally, however, the proposal was not approved in this form.

The current form of European regulation no longer contains fixed quotas, but its goal is still to increase the share of the lesser represented sex on boards to 40% by 2020. This applies to only a few companies in the Czech Republic.

So how well is Europe and the Czech Republic doing as regards women representation on boards?

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The answer to this question appeared in the fifth issue of Women in the Boardroom – A global perspective, a report by Deloitte mapping the situation in 64 countries worldwide, including the Czech Republic.

Norway, where quotas were introduced in 2007, is the leading country in Europe with 42% of women on company boards; the UK has half as many (20%). For comparison, the average in the US is only 14%.

The Czech Republic has reached the level of 9% of women on boards. This is closer to the average of Asian countries where the average women representation is 8% and it is the lowest compared to other parts of the world.

Most women in top management across Europe work in the consumer sector (25%), finance (24%) and health care (23%).

For the first time, the Women in the Boardroom study also focused on the link between corporate governance and internal diversity. It turned out that in companies led by a woman the proportion of women in management was almost twice as high (28.5%) than in male-led companies (15.5%).

Women on boards of European companies. Source: "Women in the Boardroom – A global perspective - 5th edition" report by Deloitte

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Article source Deloitte - multinational company providing audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk and financial advisory services
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