Smorgasbord of opportunity ... legislation ensures women an equal place at the Norwegian boardroom table.
Norway has stepped up its efforts to make its boardrooms more gender-neutral by introducing a new law requiring at least 40 per cent of its municipal-owned company boards to be female.
The Norwegian ministry of local government said the new law is the first of its kind in Europe and will go into effect on January 1.
Norway already made groundbreaking changes to its boardroom culture in 2002 by introducing a 40 per cent female quota rule for listed and state-owned companies. Since then, Spain has followed suit with rules for female board representation and France has proposed a similar law.
As of 2008, all listed Norwegian companies on the Oslo stock exchange have also had to fill 40 per cent of their board seats with women or face dissolution. When the law was first proposed in 2002, women accounted for only 6 per cent of Norwegian board seats.
AP
