Board and management in limited companies, 1 January 2007

The law considering gender representation in publicly owned enterprises and privately owned public limited companies (PLC) came into force one year ago. By January 1 2007, 525 active PLC are registered. 193 of these, 38 per cent, fulfil the requirements, which is a improvement compared to one year back when 17.5 per cent of all PLC fulfilled the requirement.

A lack of 460 women

Three out of four board members are men, and there is still a lack of 460 women to meet the requirements of 40 per cent women in the boardroom. This is however an improvement compared to the situation one year ago, when 18 per cent of the board members were women, and the boardrooms were short of 600 women to fulfil the requirements. 148 public limited companies have no women on the board, and only 3 per cent of the chairmen are women.

204 of the public limited companies, or 40 per cent, now fulfil the requirements of owner-elected members of board. One year ago only 98 out of 491 meet this standard. 61 of the enterprises have requirements for employee-elected member of bard. 33 of the enterprises, or 54 per cent, fulfil this requirement.

Female members of board are younger and more educated

Average age of a female member of board is 45.7 years, while the average age of a male member of board is 54.4 years. Six out of ten male members of board have completed tertiary education, and corresponding seven out of then female members.

84 per cent of the publicly owned enterprises fulfil the requirements

There are 375 publicly owned enterprises that are comprised by the requirements for gender representation in the board. These are public corporations, state enterprises, intermunicipal companies, health enterprises and three special law companies In this group, 315 enterprises, or 84 per cent, meet the standard for gender representation.

Looking at the different requirements, you see that 85 per cent of the publicly owned enterprises fulfil the requirements for owner-elected members of board. 44 of the enterprises have requirements for employee-elected members of board, and of these 39 enterprises, 89 per cent, fulfil the requirements.

The publicly owned enterprises consist of 2 182 board members, where four out of ten are women. If all the publicly owned enterprises are to fulfil the requirements, 80 women are lacking. 15 enterprises have not one woman on the board, while 3 enterprises consist of only women and no men.

Tables:

• Table 1 Public limited companies by requirement concerning owner-elected and employee-elected members of board. 1 January 2006 and 2007
• Table 2 Public limited companies and members of board, by gender. 1 January 2006 and 2007
• Table 3 Public limited companies and members of board, by gender and age. 1 January 2007
• Table 4 Public limited companies and members of board, by gender and level of education. 1 January 2007
• Table 5 Public limited companies, by requirement concerning owner-elected members of board and number of owner-elected members of board. 1 January 2007
• Table 6 Public limited companies, by requirement concerning employee-elected members of board and number of employee-elected members of board. 1 January 2007
• Table 7 Public limited companies, by requirement concerning owner-elected and employee-elected members of board and number of members of board. 1 January 2007
• Table 8 Public limited companies, by requirement concerning deputies and number of deputies. 1 January 2007
• Table 9 Publicly owned enterprises, by requirement concerning owner-elected and employee-elected members of board. 1 January 2007
• Table 10 Publicly owned enterprises and members of board, by gender. 1 January 2007
• Table 11 Publicly owned enterprises, by requirement concerning owner-elected members of board and number of owner-elected members of board. 1 January 2007
• Table 12 Publicly owned enterprises, by requirement concerning employee-elected members of board and number of employee-elected members of board. 1 January 2007