Abstract
This first of two volumes analyzes the use of different quota strategies and regulations used across eight European nations which have attempted to resolve the timely and persistent issue of a lack of female representation on corporate boards. In so doing, the editors Catherine Seierstad, Patricia Gabaldon, and Heike Mensi-Klarbach contribute to the ensuing debate on how to handle this concern by publishing under one volume a series of comparative strategies and reflections on the drivers behind and effectiveness of each. Furthermore, they bring the issue of systemic structural problems to the forefront of the conversation on organizations and society by linking such varied topics as governance, economics, human resource management, and gender and diversity issues. This volume’s complete accounting for governance systems, the historical issues that led to their enactment, and responses to the enacted systems provide a noteworthy uniqueness of this volume in comparison to other books on the topic.
The result is a valuable resource to open a discussion among and between academics, corporate and state-level policymakers, and organizational leaders. The two volumes in this collection tackle different approaches to increase female representation on boards: whereas Volume 1 (reviewed herein) focuses on those countries that have enacted quota regulations for supervisory boards, and Volume 2 discusses the approaches by countries that do not have in place any quota regulations.
Gender Diversity in the Boardroom. Volume 1: The Use of Different Quota Regulations is divided into ten chapters. With the exception of the first and final chapters, which respectively set the scene for and summarize the use of different approaches to regulations and policies, the remainder of the chapters each tackle a specific country’s approach, including: Norway, Spain, Iceland, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Chapters in this volume are structured rather consistently throughout, which allows the reader simplified understanding and ready access to each country’s approach that I found quite helpful. For instance, if a corporate executive is looking to gain a deeper-level understanding of Iceland’s policies before engaging in business in that country or a researcher has access to organizational data from this country and would like to better understand the gender-referent context in which this data is couched, either of these readers could turn to Chapter 4 and could make clear sense of Iceland’s historic and contemporary systems without concerning herself with other introductory material. Generally, a reader diving into any of this volume’s chapters may expect the following: a brief introduction to the country’s recent regulatory guidelines, background/history of the country’s economic, political, and cultural systems relevant to gender issues, recent information about board structure, corporate and country-level governance models and forces that enable and/or hinder policymaking, critical reflections by the author(s), and reflections of an actor who has had personal experience working within the country’s system. Europe provides an exceptional context for discussing issues of gender inequality among nations who share some economic and socio-cultural norms yet approach the topic from vastly different cultural, political, and historical differences. The differing country-level strategies and policies brought to light in this volume highlight the varied viewpoints and motivations that remain at the heart of the issue of gender equality and the general dearth of women on boards. By limiting the scope of included countries to European nations only, this volume benefits from the boundary condition of posing comparisons within one sphere of general economic and sociocultural influence.
It is clear that several European nations are taking strides and making progressive attempts to advance female representation on corporate oversight boards, but this begs the question of whether such regulation could be expected to produce globally generalizable effects.
Although the volume’s strengths are numerous, a few less-developed aspects warrant commentary. For instance, I would have appreciated to see the effectiveness of these countries’ policies compared not only to those actions taken by other countries that also enacted quotas but against the labor statistics of (European) countries that did not enact any change policies or quota regulations. Ultimately, I would like a more clear answer as to the question of “as far as we know right now, what works?” Doing so could have provided a stronger case for the enactment of such action at the country level and provide policymakers and other practitioners with some guidance as to where to begin.
Furthermore, from a socio-cultural perspective, it would be helpful to understand each country’s gender divide and policy attempts within the context of the country’s cultural dimensions referent to masculinity and femininity (for instance, Hofstede’s dimension of the same name, or the GLOBE Study’s dimensions of gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, to name a few). I believe that this perspective would enable greater insight into why some countries may have attempted specific regulations in lieu of alternatives and might help us predict which may be the most effective on a case-by-case basis given the degree to which a country and its members tend to value certain contributions to society. Finally, although the relatively consistent intra-chapter organization across the country-chapters of the volume will prove useful to readers as I elaborated above, the appeal of such a systematic approach is mitigated by the restrictions placed on individual chapter contributors to spend time elaborating on other factors that might have driven decisions that fall outside the scope of the standard chapter arrangement. For instance, it would be worth considering what other change agents could have driven the selection of policies—at a global level, issues related to the 2008 financial crisis and challenging notions related to the “glass cliff” effect have been shown to drive motivation toward various policies and at specific country levels, we have seen the rise of expectations for femininity among corporate leadership among various stakeholder groups, which could be potentially attributed to policy choices as well.
Ultimately, I’m left with several questions, but I see this as a potentially good thing as one important way to measure the impact of any intellectual endeavor is by considering the subsequent discussion it sparks. What do we yet not widely know about the effectiveness of similar or perhaps entirely dissimilar attempts by other countries, provinces, states, or towns to manage this issue? Which policies might we expect to generalize outside of the respective countries of study, and moreover, outside of Europe to other nations, and what issues might those nations expect to face in implementing even those policies that have shown to work well in Europe? I join the editors in hoping that this volume sparks intellectual conversation and strategic practice regarding these and comparable areas of inquiry, and this volume leaves the reader desiring to learn more about the “revolution in people’s mindsets” that is beginning to occur as a result of evolving gender egalitarian policies (p. vi). In conclusion, the volume has wide-ranging appeal, as the ensuing debate of gender inequality on corporate boards has gained much attention in both public and scholarly domains. And considering today’s political climate, it will be interesting to see how this plays out on a global stage. The promotion of female representation will remain an important goal for companies and societies until the day that fair and just representation is finally and sustainably met.