Spain Sets Another Goal
from September/October 2008
by Ron Connaught
Is Spain about to cap its triumph at the World Cup by reaching another goal—the requirement that its companies appoint more women to their boards? That’s the game plan. Following the course set by Norway, which five years ago mandated a 2010 deadline by which its companies’ boards will need to be 40% female, Spain has set a similar target for its businesses and a deadline of 2015.
Norway’s big companies are well ahead of schedule: Women now occupy 44% of the board seats there, up from 28.8% in 2006, according to a survey by the European Professional Women’s Network and executive recruiter Egon Zehnder International.
The study, which looked at Europe’s 300 largest companies, shows that men still dominate boards everywhere. Companies in other Scandinavian countries had an average level of 23.6% female representation on their boards, still way behind Norway. In the U.K., women accounted for 11.5% of board seats, and in reform-minded Spain 6.6%. Portugal had the lowest representation, with 0.8%.
How’s the U.S. doing? With 14.8% of the board seats of Fortune 500 companies held by women, somewhat better than Europe’s average 9.7%, for sure. But the country is still way short of Norway and—before long?—Spain.
