Breaking finance and business news, tax information, jobs and more for finance directors and senior finance professionals.

A survey by the European Professional Women’s Network and recruitment firm Egon Zehnder International shows that the top 300 European companies - based on the FTSEurofirst 300 Index - now have 9.7 per cent of women on their boards, up from 8.5 per cent in 2006 and 8 per cent in 2004.

Scandinavian countries

Of a total 5,146 board seats, women occupy 501. European champion Norway jumped to having 44.2 per cent women on boards as a result of quota legislation.

Without Norway, the European growth rate falls back to 9.1 per cent, confirming the average growth rate of around 0.5 percentage points over each two year period from 2004 onwards.

This development clearly demonstrates that quotas are an effective way to accelerate growth of female representation on boards.

Norway’s impressive growth path to 44.2 per cent women on boards - from 28.8 per cent in 2006 and 22 per cent in 2004 - is followed at a lesser but still impressive pace by the other Scandinavian countries.

Sweden posted 26.9 per cent, up from 22.8 per cent in 2006, whereas Finland and Denmark recorded 25.7 per cent and 18.1 per cent respectively, up from 20 per cent and 17.9 per cent.

All Scandinavian countries continue to outperform the rest of Europe. Apart from The Netherlands, the rest of Europe is moving glacially slow.

UK at a standstill

The Netherlands has taken over the lead position in the first group of followers from the United Kingdom.

With 12.3 per cent, almost double the percentage of 2006 (6.5 per cent), this country clearly benefits from the many private initiatives and press attention for the issue of women’s under-representation on boards in the past few years.

The UK at 11.5 per cent seems to have reached a standstill as the percentage has hardly changed since two years ago (11.4 per cent) after an initial encouraging growth rate of 1.4 percentage points from 10 per cent in 2004.

Growth in France is below average, resulting in 7.6 per cent women on boards from 7.3 per cent in 2006. Germany recorded an average growth of women on boards, from 7.2 per cent in 2006 to 7.8 per cent.

Italy and Portugal remain Europe’s laggards, with Greece, Spain and Switzerland a little ahead. Marked by stagnation, the divide between these countries and the rest is increasing quickly.

The European Professional Women’s Network expects to see some impact of Spain’s very recently introduced quota legislation in the next survey in 2010.

All male board 

The average European board is now composed of 15.1 people, of which are 1.5 women. The size of boards has slightly decreased since 2006, when the average European board was composed of 15.4 people, of which 1.3 were women.

Women today therefore play a marginally stronger role than two years ago. Three out of four companies have at least one woman on board.

Seventy-two per cent of companies in the survey have at least one woman on the board, up from 68 per cent in 2006 and 62 per cent in 2004. One out of four companies, however, still has an all male board.

In Norway, Sweden and Finland the average number of women on boards has passed the significant number of three, signalling that these countries have clearly moved away from tokenism and are convinced of the positive impact on their results gender diversity brings.

The survey found that 23.5 per cent of board members are of a different nationality than that of the company’s headquarters, up from 22.6 per cent in 2006. For women the proportion of internationals is even higher, reaching 24.8 per cent in 2008.

The exception is Norway, with just 2.4 per cent of women board members coming from a different country; the activities, as organised by the Norwegian authorities, employers’ federation and private initiatives, in preparation of the introduction of the quota legislation, resulted in finding and developing the pool of female Norwegian talent.

Critical mass 

The 17 European countries fall into four groups: Front Runners, the Above Average Club, the Below Average Club and the Laggards.

The Front Runners are the Scandinavian countries, led for the third time in a row by Norway, with a high of 44.2 per cent women on boards and followed by Sweden (26.9 per cent), Finland (25.7 per cent) and Denmark (18.1 per cent).

Norway jumped 15.4 percentage points from 28.8 per cent in 2006 and 22 per cent in 2004, driven by quota legislation. Almost all companies in this group have at least one woman on the board.

Norway, Sweden and Finland have reached the critical mass of having on average at least three women on the board.

Four countries follow in the Above Average Club, led by The Netherlands with 12.3 per cent, and trailed by the UK with 11.5 per cent of women on boards, Ireland (10.1 per cent) and Austria (9.2 per cent).

>>>>> article continues >>>>>