Male-female ratios
By RTL News 1 minute ago Modified: 1 minute ago
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RTL
A third of all new directors of Dutch listed companies were women last year. Never before have so many new women reached the top, but State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (Emancipation) also has a side note. Companies must ‘continue to work’ for a balanced male-female ratio, she says.
This year, 25 new directors joined the board of directors of a Dutch listed company. Eight were women and seventeen were men, according to the Female Board Index 2024. Tilburg professor Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers compiled the list for the eighteenth time this year – she hopes to create awareness in the business community with it.
16 percent are women
Because six female directors also stepped down this year, the share of women on the boards of directors of 82 Dutch listed companies increased only slightly. Women still make up only 16 percent of Dutch boardrooms, last year this was 15 percent.
Lückerath-Rovers also investigated how many women are on the Supervisory Board. This is a supervisory body that every listed company has. The male-female ratio is much more balanced there: 40 percent are women. At eighteen companies, the Supervisory Board even consists of an equal number of men and women.
Symbolic legislation
In 2021, a law was introduced that stipulates that at least 30 percent of the Supervisory Board must be women. This was symbolic legislation because at the time the law was introduced, more than a third of the supervisory boards were already women.
At present, nineteen companies have both a supervisory board and a board of directors that are made up of more than a third of women, according to the figures from Lückerath-Rovers. Engineering and consultancy firm Arcadis is in the lead.
Ambition, but no law
“It’s great that this index shows a significant increase in the percentage of newly appointed female directors,” says State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (Emancipation) in response to the figures. “I am convinced that a diverse top, with sufficient role models for everyone, ensures better business management.”
But we are not there yet, the State Secretary adds. More than fifty listed companies do not have a single woman on their board of directors. She therefore calls on companies to set ‘ambitious targets’ for their boards of directors
There is no legislation on the number of women in boardrooms. “There is insufficient support to get such a rule through parliament,” Lückerath-Rovers said about it last year. “Many do not want government interference in the recruitment policy of the private sector.”
