European Women's Lobby Debate

Helene Martin Gee represented Pink Shoe for a debate hosted by Angelika Mlinar MEP and organised by the European Women’s Lobby and PwC. ‘Looking Backwards - Moving forwards: Women on Company Boards’ 

Looking back to the European Parliament 2013 ‘Women on Boards Directive’ the event considered what has been achieved and how to move forward in the future; discussing what type of policies are needed to ensure that women’s representation in leadership and management at the highest levels to drive businesses across Europe.

The European Commission proposal was intended to address under representation from women on company boards with the aim that a minimum of 40% of non-executive members on company boards should be filled by women by 2020 in the private sector and by 2018 in public-sector companies.

With the approaching end of the current European mandate and almost five years since the European Parliament vote, the expert panel assessed what has been achieved.

We heard that progress varies considerably across the EU, with some countries introducing legislative measures while others have self-regulated women’s representation in companies. For example, in the UK there has been good progress without the legislation of quotas, with the input of the 30% Club.