Large companies will definitely be forced to hire more women in their leadership. This afternoon, the Senate voted in favor of a bill on a binding women’s quota, whereby at least one third of the supervisory boards of listed companies must consist of women.
In addition, the five thousand largest companies must set concrete goals for a more balanced distribution of women and men in the top and sub-top. The new law is likely to come into effect from January 2022.
The law really shouldn’t be necessary writes outgoing minister Dekker (Legal Protection), but is “necessary as a push in the back of the business community to really work on diversity for once”. The law is initially temporary. It will be evaluated after five years and both provisions will expire after eight years. But whether the new women’s quota also has an effect on women’s emancipation in the workplace in a broader sense remains to be seen.
For the majority of the large companies, not much will change; of the 89 listed companies, 61 meet the upcoming quota, pale earlier this month from the 2021 Female Board Index, which the Tias School for Business and Society releases annually. Last year there were ten fewer.
‘Doesn’t happen by itself’
A balanced relationship requires attention, says Mariëtte Turkenburg, chairperson of Talent to the Top. “It doesn’t come naturally to most companies.” According to Turkenberg, a shortage of women at the top is not always “ill will”, but can also be “unconscious incompetence” in the field of gender equality.
“That can be a whole accumulation of small things,” says the chairman. “A classic example is the question during a job interview: ‘How did you organize things with the children?’. This is asked to women, not to men. It can also be the interview technique. For example, men are more likely to say: “I can do that. ‘ And tell women where the gaps are. But as an employer you can also think: ‘That’s an honest answer, and how bad is it that this person can’t do this?'”
Norway quota effects disappointing
Outgoing minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (Emancipation) calls the law “a breakthrough”. “We have worked with target figures for a long time, but if it is not voluntary now, we dare to take really strong measures,” says Van Engelshoven in the NPO Radio 1 program. News and Co. But whether the law will really make a big difference remains to be seen; the effects of a similar quota in Norway from 2013 are disappointing, says correspondent Roelien Créton.
“The hope was a spillover effect, so that the 40 percent female quota on the supervisory board would lead to more women in top positions, more female CEOs, more top executives and more equality in salaries. And that is not happening, research shows. “
–
