Gender Quotas in Corporate Governance: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Economic decision-making in the European Union suffers at the highest corporate echelons from a lack of diversity, especially for what concerns gender representativeness. This article seeks to contribute to the corporate gender quota debate, reinvigorated by the recent European Commission's Proposal aiming to introduce quotas in boardrooms, by taking some national experiences as a starting point. It will reveal the existence of a plethora of perspectives and introduce a reference to industrial relations, borrowing from corporate governance theory. The article focuses on three selected countries, representing different models of addressing corporate gender imbalance: the United Kingdom, Spain and France.