Parliament to debate female representation

MEPs to discuss ‘Women on Board’ with Viviane Reding.

MEPs will debate on Monday (12 March) whether the European Commission should propose legislation to oblige listed companies to increase the number of women directors

Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, will take part in the debate in Strasbourg, which will also cover gender equality more generally.

Reding launched a public consultation on Monday (5 March) after presenting a report suggesting that self-regulation was not working and that companies had made only “limited progress” over the past year in increasing the number of women directors.

The European Parliament called last summer for Reding to propose binding quotas, and many MEPs want her to move forward with legislation straight away.

Sophie in ’t Veld, a Dutch Liberal MEP who drafted one of the Parliament’s reports on the issue, said that the Commission had to speed up its work. “The time for reports is over,” she said. “Now is the time for action.”

Reding’s progress report, which came a year after she called for “credible” self-regulatory measures, showed that 13.7% of board members in Europe’s biggest 600 companies were women in 2011, a slight increase from 11.8% in 2010. The commissioner said that at the current rate it would take 40 years to reach the target of at least 40%.

Only 24 companies had signed up to Reding’s ‘Woman on the Board Pledge’ committing themselves to having women making up at least 30% of the board membership by 2015 and 40% by 2020.

The Commission’s public consultation will run until 28 May, after which Reding will decide whether to propose legislation.

‘Patronising’ move

Helena Morrissey, the founder of the 30% Club aimed at encouraging companies to voluntarily increase their number of women directors, said binding quotas would be “patronising” to women.

“While we applaud any move to encourage greater female representation at an executive level, we believe mandatory quotas are both unnecessary and potentially damaging,” she said.

BusinessEurope, which represents employers’ groups from 35 countries, has also said that it opposes legislation.

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