On International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8 March, Ethics&Boards and ecoDa published their gender diversity barometer. In 2023, the majority of companies (80.7%) in the Stoxx EUROPE 600 meet the targets set by the “Women on Boards” Directive (see EUROPE 13068/15), they say.
The Directive requires listed companies to have either 40% female Executive Directors, or 33% if the target is extended to Non-Executive Directors. According to the barometer, 29.5% of Stoxx EUROPE 600 companies have Boards of Directors with between 33.5% and 40% female Directors, and 51.2% have over 40%. On average, women make up 38.9% of Boards of Directors.
While encouraging, these figures must be qualified because the index studied only covers 17 European countries, including 15 Member States. According to the European Commission, the average number of women on the Boards of Directors of listed companies in the EU as a whole is only 32.2% (see https://aeur.eu/f/5om ).
Furthermore, by the end of 2022, only 8 EU countries had gender quotas for these listed companies. Spain may soon join them as the government has proposed a law imposing quotas on listed companies or companies with more than 250 employees as well as on electoral lists, government and professional federations.
Finally, while the Stoxx EUROPE 600 performs well, the barometer shows that performance in terms of gender equality among Boards of Directors (11.2%) and CEOs (7.7%) is less impressive.
Take a look at the barometer: https://aeur.eu/f/5on (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)