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GENDER POLITICS
women strutted into
boardrooms as men sloped off
out the back door. As the July deadline
loomed the number of women on
boards had quadrupled to 24%.
Impressive, but still way off target.
So the government got tough. Hit 40%
by January 2008 or your company will
be closed down. No excuses.
Step forward 32-year-old Benja Stig
Fagerland. An economist with two
degrees and an MBA, Fagerland was
headhunted by the NHO (Confederation
of Norweigian Enterprise) to lead a
task force to find and train women
to take their places on the country’s
boards. “Initially I was ambivalent”,
she said. “Every job I’d had I’d been
the youngest and only woman. I
thought it was an issue of competence
and nothing to do with being female.
I dug a little deeper and that’s when
I changed my mind.” So she set up an
initiative called Female Future and
began training the bosses of the future.
By 2008, most of the female spots on
the board had been filled by her.
PAVING�THE�WAY
No question, the law was a risky move
by the Norwegian government, and
the UK decision makers have never
been confident enough to pull off a
similar move. Critics still question its
success, but evidence has proved it
works. Norway set a new global
record and now has the best
representation of women as board
members in the world with 44.2%.
But what effect did it have on the
economy and the people? Overall,
between 560 and 600 women were
appointed board members. Most of
the 463 companies that were affected
acquired between two and four women,
which meant hundreds of men were
shunted off to make way for them.
Rolf Dammann, the co-owner of
a Norwegian bank, admitted, “People
have had to sack board members
they’ve worked with and trusted for
20 or 30 years, and replace them with
someone unknown. That’s hard.” As
the average yearly fee for a board
X In Finland, taxi drivers can have their
licence revoked if they appear unwashed or
untidily dressed. If only they could ban them
from droning on about traffic jams.
X While we Brits often scoff our sandwiches
at our desk, most bosses in Spain encourage a
three-hour lunch break. God bless the siesta.
X Fancy implementing a four-day week law?
Move to Switzerland, where the government
allows citizens to propose their own laws.
To put forward an ‘initiative’ all you have
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SUCCESS STORY: HILDE MYRBERG IS
ON THE BOARD OF ORKLA, ONE OF
NORWAY’S BIGGEST COMPANIES
member is £23,000, it had a huge
affect on the families involved.
For most, though, the law had a
positive impact. The first woman to be
included on the board of Orkla (one of
Norway’s biggest companies), Hilde
Myrberg, was initially against state
intervention: “I felt that it should be
the share holders and no one else
deciding.” But she now says that she
thinks the quota has been a force for
good. “Diversity is working. For too
long it had been a men’s club with very
narrow and tight membership rules,
and now companies across Norway
are performing better than ever.”
Anita Krohn Traaseth, 38, is CEO
of Norway’s largest IT company. She
admits the law offered opportunities
that previously weren’t available to
her. “I have two board positions which
pay around £16,000 each a year. That
wouldn’t have happened without the
law. I was nervous walking into the
boardroom, yes, but I felt I should
be there and that I had a lot to offer.”
And what did men think when
their boardrooms were invaded? Far
from being hired to make up the
numbers, Heidi Marie Peterson’s
knowledge of strategy and spreadsheets
made colleagues sit up and notice in
the board meetings. “Wow! You know
something about business,” blurted
one man. She now sits on 11 boards.
So far, no comprehensive study
has been released to show whether
there’s a link between the quota and
improved performance in Norway.
But a recent study of the US Fortune
500 Companies showed that there was
a strong correlation between having
three or more women on a company’s
board and above-average returns, so
it’s likely it will have. What the law
did was catapult experienced, qualified
and deserving women to board
positions which had previously been
closed to them. Now France, Spain,
“Business is ignoring talent. It’s
missing out on the skills and
potential of 52% of the population”
Sweden and Denmark are all in the
process of trying to do exactly the
same thing as Norway.
IS�THE�UK�READY?
So, could we handle such a move
here? 12% of our boards are female,
making us second best (jointly with
Holland) in Europe after Norway. But
it certainly isn’t much to gloat about,
says Emily Thornberry, MP for
Islington South & Finsbury. “Women
are grossly under-represented on the
boards of FTSE 100 companies. At the
current rate it will take another 73
THE OTHER EUROPEAN LAWS WE’D GLADLY BORROW
to do is round up 100,000 signatures.
X If you’re considering motherhood, you
may want to move to Sweden. It offers equal
maternity and paternity laws. Dads can take
up to 16 months paid leave and
there’s a total of 480 days leave
available for both parents.
X Workers in France are
guaranteed five weeks
holiday and the majority of
companies shut up shop for
ANSGAR GABRIELSEN
DECLARED WAR ON GENDER
INEQUALITY IN 2002
SWEDEN HAS GREAT
MATERNITY AND
PATERNITY LAWS
years for 100 directorships to be
shared equally between men and
women. We cannot wait this long.”
And it’s not just a matter of equality,
adds Thornberry. “Business is ignoring
talent. It’s missing out on the skills
and potential of 52% of the population
and that’s a terrible waste. It has been
suggested that if we had more women
in our boardrooms, we might not have
experienced the recent financial
collapse… I certainly think the idea of
a quota should be considered,” she says.
Not all women agree. Katja Hall,
director of employment policy with
UK business organisation CBI, doesn’t
want a free pass: “We don’t think a
quota system like the Norwegian
model is the way forward. Most people
don’t want to get a job simply because
they are a woman; progression must
be based on merit.”
Lucy Kellaway, a columnist for the
Financial Times who is on the board
of insurance company Admiral, adds:
“There’s tremendous pressure on
CEOs at the moment to have women
on their boards. The trouble is, there
aren’t enough women with the right
sort of skills. It’s not due to my
unique wonderfulness that I’m on a
board. It’s because I’m a woman.”
Forcing a situation to move forward
before it’s ready often does more
damage than good. At least that’s
what Peninah Thompson, author of
A Woman’s Place Is In The Boardroom
(Palgrave MacMillan, £27.50) thinks:
“It would undo all we’ve done. It has
taken a lot of work to persuade large
blue-chip organisations to include
women. And if women were forced
upon them it would do a lot of harm.”
But perhaps the strongest
argument for change comes from
Arni Hole, who has seen how well the
law worked in Norway. “You always
need the best in your boardroom.
End of story. And if you have to force
people to do it, what of it? At least it
gets done. And it has to be done”. It’s
hard to argue with such logic. Anyone
fancy giving the old British boys
a run for their money?
the whole of August. Working hours are strictly
regulated – 35 hours a week – and thanks to a
healthy quota of public holidays they get an
extra 22 days off a year. Jealous?
X While UK dentists happily fill our
mouths with mercury, the Norwegians
have seen fit to ban it. The cheap metal
has been accused of everything from
rashes to breakdown of the nervous
system. Clearly our health isn’t regarded
quite as highly.
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