European Companies Remain Slow to Promote Women to the Board - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Scandinavia comes out best in a new report on the proportion of women on the board at leading firms around Europe.

• But the proportion of women is still low even in Scandinavia, with the top-ranked countries Sweden and Finland showing a percentages of women at 22% and 21% respectively.

• The results appear in Heidrick & Struggles’ latest corporate governance report, drawn from a study of 71 leading companies in 13 European countries.

• Italy and Portugal sit at the bottom of the chart with only 3% of board seats held by women. The other 9 countries range from 6% to 15%.

• The average percentage for Europe is 10%.

• The report also covered the proportion of companies with no women on their boards. The pattern was similar, with Sweden, Finland and Denmark at the top with very few companies in this category, and Italy, Portugal and Austria trailing at the bottom with 65%-plus companies with no female directors.

• On average, almost a third of leading European companies had no women on their boards.

Source: Boards in Turbulent Times -– Corporate Governance Report 2009, Heidrick & Struggles.