Europe: gender diversity of company boards - a quota from Europe and updated UK data

Details of the European Commission's proposals regarding the gender diversity of company boards are beginning to emerge. The Financial Times contains a report titled "EU pushes 40% quota for women on boards" referring to proposals under discussion within the Commission for a Directive requiring at least 40% of non-executive positions to be held by women: see here (subscription required). The quota would apply to companies on the basis of turnover and number of employees. Sanctions for non-compliance are envisaged (e.g. fines) but how and when these are imposed would be left for Member States to decide. The draft proposals are also being reported by Deutsch Welle: see here.

Meanwhile, in the UK the Professional Boards Forum has today published updated figures regarding the gender diversity of FTSE100 and FTSE250 company boards: see here. This reports that 44% of FTSE100 board appointments since 1 March 2012 have been women. 17.3% of FTSE100 directors are women (the figure for FTSE250 companies is lower at 11.3%). It is also reported that 8 FTSE100 companies have no female directors.