Business milestone in terms of equality. The presence of women on boards of directors breaks the 30% barrier for the first time in history. An advance that, however, is insufficient to reach the objective of 40% that the Council of Ministers sets precisely this Tuesday in the Law of Parity Representation.
Specifically, at the end of 2022 the presence of women on the boards of directors of listed companies stood at 31.87% of the total, more than two points above the previous year, according to information extracted from the annual reports of corporate governance of companies. In the Ibex35 the percentage reached 37.56%, with a growth of more than three points.
The evolution is “positive”, but “insufficient”. This is criticized by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) itself, which in a note encourages “promoting the incorporation of women in positions of greater responsibility, especially in senior management and executive positions, where the disparity is greater” .
As for senior management, at the end of last year women held 21.73% of all senior management positions, two points more than in the previous year. A figure “clearly far from what is desirable in an environment that favors gender diversity”, questions the CNMV, which considers it “strategic for listed companies to promote policies that favor diversity and the incorporation of women in positions of greater responsibility, especially in senior management positions and as executive directors.
The organization directed by Rodrigo Buenaventura emphasizes that the rate of incorporation “must be accelerated” to reach the recommendation of 40% of the Good Governance Code, since this “promotes gender diversity and maximizes the talent available to the issuing companies”.
This objective is in line with what the Government establishes in the Parity Representation Law that is approved today by the Council of Ministers in the second round to send it to the Congress of Deputies and that will require a presence of at least 40% of women in different political and economic spheres: from the Government itself to boards of directors of large companies, electoral candidacies, professional associations and public recognition juries.
But the CNMV data reveals that the large listed companies have not yet reached that goal. To get an idea, for all the Ibex35 companies to reach the 40% target, 11 new female directors should be appointed in total. And for this to be observed in all listed companies, 99 women would have to be appointed as directors.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
