Norway leads world with women in boardroom

OSLO – Women account for at least 40 per cent of the boardroom places in more than half of Norwegian companies, making the Scandinavian country a world leader in directorship gender equality, a report published yesterday showed.

Norwegian businesses have been given until January 2008 to meet the 40 per cent target or face being shut down, under a new law. “It’s the first time that a majority of companies have met the target,” Marit Hoel, the head of the Centre for Corporate Diversity, said as she presented new statistics to reporters.A pioneering Norwegian law, initiated in 2002 by a male conservative minister, requires the country’s 520 public limited companies to have at least 40 percent women on their boards as of January 1 2008 or face closure.On June 1, 55 per cent of companies had complied.But 134 companies still had no women on their boards, Hoel said.The overall proportion of women on the boards of Norway’s public listed companies is currently 26.6 per cent, twice the level in most western countries and almost four times more than in 2002 when the law was initiated.According to the Centre for Corporate Diversity, the equivalent figure in the United States is 13.6 per cent, compared to 11.8 per cent in Britain, 11.2 in Canada and 8.4 per cent in Australia.Nampa-AFP”It’s the first time that a majority of companies have met the target,” Marit Hoel, the head of the Centre for Corporate Diversity, said as she presented new statistics to reporters.A pioneering Norwegian law, initiated in 2002 by a male conservative minister, requires the country’s 520 public limited companies to have at least 40 percent women on their boards as of January 1 2008 or face closure.On June 1, 55 per cent of companies had complied.But 134 companies still had no women on their boards, Hoel said.The overall proportion of women on the boards of Norway’s public listed companies is currently 26.6 per cent, twice the level in most western countries and almost four times more than in 2002 when the law was initiated.According to the Centre for Corporate Diversity, the equivalent figure in the United States is 13.6 per cent, compared to 11.8 per cent in Britain, 11.2 in Canada and 8.4 per cent in Australia.Nampa-AFP