One year after EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding called for ‘credible’ self-regulatory measures, the latest progress report shows there has been limited progress towards increasing the number of women on company boards in the EU.
Just one in seven board members at Europe’s top firms is a woman (13.7%) according to Women in economic decision-making in the EU: Progress report. This is a slight improvement from 11.8% in 2010. However, according to the report it would still take more than 40 years to reach a significant gender balance (at least 40% of both sexes) at this rate. The report comes one year after EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding challenged publicly-listed companies in Europe to voluntarily increase the number of women in their boardrooms by signing the ‘Women on the Board Pledge for Europe’. Reding, said “Personally, I am not a great fan of quotas. However, I like the results they bring” and the Commission has launched a public consultation seeking views on possible action at EU level, including legislative measures, to redress the gender imbalance on company boards. The public consultation will run until 28 May 2012.
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