More CEDAW and Norway

By Austin Ruse | January 28, 2010

Hertiage Foundation’s Steven Groves has sent me the citation from the CEDAW meeting that informed the decision of Norway to mandate 40% women on private corporate boards.

From a 2003 Committee report regarding Norway.

395. The [Norwegian] representative indicated that one of the challenges facing Norway was that few women participated in decision-making in the economic field, especially in large corporations and firms. In 2002, only 6.6 per cent of members of boards of public stock companies were women. In an effort to address this situation, in 2002 the Government adopted a directive to the effect that both sexes should be represented by a presence of at least 40 per cent on executive boards of public joint stock companies and in State-owned companies. It is hoped that this goal will be reached by the end of 2003 with regard to State-owned companies. Private companies had until the end of 2005 to reach the goal. Initially, this directive had met with considerable resistance, but there was growing recognition that more diversity on executive boards would be an asset for companies. The number of women elected to executive boards of private companies had increased, although their number was still very low. The representative highlighted the fact that Norway was the first country in the world to propose legislation concerning the representation of women and men on executive boards.

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405. The Committee also commends the State party for its innovative strategy to increase the number of women on the executive boards of public joint stock companies and State-owned companies. According to that strategy, legislation making it mandatory for the boards of those companies to have a minimum of 40 per cent from each sex in their membership would come into force in 2006, if that target had not been reached voluntarily by the end of 2005.

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