This summary is provided by the IPR Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Dr. Audrey Latura and Dr. Ana Catalano Weeks examined how gender quotas for corporate boards contribute to gender equality in a company.
Yearly reports from 2007–2017 from 96 companies in Italy and Greece were reviewed.
Key findings include:
1.) In 2011, a gender quota for corporate boards was passed in Italy requiring that from 2012 women hold one-fifth of board seats in publicly listed companies, and from 2013, one-third of board seats.
— By 2017, overall company attention to gender equality issues increases by about 50% in Italy.
— This finding suggests that government legislation can play a key role in compelling market actors to address gender inequality.
2.) Greece in 2011 had no gender quotas for corporate boards.
— There was no significant change in attention to gender equality issues in Greece from 2011 to 2017.
3.) In 2017, the average percentage of women on corporate boards in Italy was 35% compared to 10% in Greece.
4.) Globally, only 25% of legislative seats are held by women while 29% of senior managers are women as of 2019.
— The highest proportion of women on the boards of publicly listed companies can be claimed by three “comprehensive hard quota” countries: Norway at 45%, France at 44%, and Italy at 36%.
Find the original study here.
