Women in boardrooms

Quotas do work:

Quotas to increase the ratio of women in corporate board seats are working, according to the new global census from Catalyst - strap

Introducing quotas to boost the number of women in corporate boardrooms is working, according to a new global index from Catalyst, the non-profit organisation for women in business.

Norway, the first country in the world to mandate that women account for 40pc of its board seats, tops the ranking of 20 countries across three regions, with 35.5pc female representation on the boards of its OMX-listed companies.

France, which gave its companies until January 2017 to reach the 40pc quota, is far ahead of its 20pc interim target with women accounting for 29.7pc of board seats, closing in on Finland's 29.9pc.

Companies listed in Stockholm have women in 28.8pc of their board seats, ranking Sweden fourth on Catalyst's census.

In fifth place with 23.4pc and still three financial years left until its publicly-listed companies must meet the quota of 33pc, Belgium has 23.4pc female representation on its boards.

The wider picture is less rosy, however.

At the bottom end of Catalyst's table, with 3.1pc, Japan's female boardroom representation is less than a tenth that of Norway's.

And despite the lengths taken by a handful of countries to legally mandate a fairer gender balance in boardrooms, not one has yet to fulfil this allocation.

Italy's 6pc female representation is one of the lowest rates in Europe and significantly behind its 33pc target.

Kenya's 15pc is less than half of its 33pc quota, while Canada's 20.8pc is less than half of its ambitious 50pc quota, which was passed in 2006 with a compliance date of 2011.

"We have evidence and optimism that closing the gender gap on corporate boards is possible, yet the current number are simply not good enough," said Deborah Gillis, president and chief executive of Catalyst.

"Companies that are not making diversity on boards a priority should be embarrassed."

The UK has shunned official quotas, choosing to adopt a target of 25pc female board representation by 2015. Women currently account for 22.8pc of FTSE 100 board seats, taking the UK to sixth place on Catalyst's index.

Less than a fifth of both Australia and the US' board seats are filled by women, while Germany's ratio is even lower at 18.5pc. Unlike Australia and the US, however, Germany will introduce a quota in 2016 to ensure that 30pc of its biggest companies' board seats are held by women. When the new rule was announced in November, chancellor Angela Merkel, who was originally against the idea, called the legislation "an important step for equality because it will initiate cultural change in the workplace."

Catalyst cited research showing that a gender diverse board leads a company to better financial performance. Between 2005 and 2009, the top quartile of Fortune 500 companies by female boardroom representation outperformed those in the lowest quartile with a 16pc higher return on sales and a 26pc increase in return on invested capital -- numbers which grew to 84pc and 60pc respectively for companies with sustained high representation of women on their boards.

Diverse boards have also been shown to strengthen a company's talent pipeline and increase innovation, leading to a stronger group performance, Catalyst said.

- The Telegraph