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The gender quota reform for corporate boards, first adopted in Norway in 2003 and fully implemented from 2008, has had great repercussions. A wave of diffusion of corporate board quota legislation has swept across Europe, and some other parts of the world. This paper departs from the ongoing European processes of gender quotas for corporate boards being in the making, and examines how the Norwegian expansion of gender quota regulation from the public sector to the corporate world was made possible. The strong tradition in Norway to introduce gender quota arrangements to promote gender balance is emphasized in particular. The paper addresses national preconditions and processes. Central questions are: How does this reform fit with the Norwegian gender equality policy tradition? And what external factors – and institutional tensions – facilitated the policy process? What kind of problem(s) did the gender quota legislation aim to solve? What were the main positions in public and political debates surrounding the policy process? What was the role of policy agency for the result of the policy process?

"Der Beitrag schildert die wesentlichen Aspekte der Quotenpolitik und der Politik der aktiven Förderung von Gleichstellung ('positive Maßnahmen') in Norwegen durch Gesetzgebung, Maßnahmen und Unterstützung durch die Öffentlichkeit. Aktive Förderung und Quotenregelungen gibt es in fast allen gesellschaftlichen Feldern und auch im privaten Bereich ('Vaterquote' beim Elternurlaub). Sie reichen von recht 'weichen Verfahren', die bei gleichen oder gleichwertigen Qualifikationen eine vorrangige Behandlung der KandidatInnen des unterrepräsentierten Geschlechts ermöglichen, bis hin zu strengen Quotierungen, wonach beide Geschlechter in einer Versammlung, einer Kommission, einem Ausschuss etc. mit mindestens 40% vertreten sein müssen, neuerdings auch in Vorständen privater Aktiengesellschaften. In zentralen Machtarenen sind jedoch nach wie vor Männer dominant." (Autorenreferat)

This is the only volume where the recent gender quota reform in Norway and other European countries is thoroughly discussed from an economic, political and philosophical point of view. It looks at whether the economic performance of companies is influenced and analyzes why it has been embraced in some countries and rejected in others

During the last decade gender equality in business life has become a hot topic. One impetus is the recent reform in Norway, prescribing gender quotas to the boards of directors of public companies. Shortly after the Norwegian reform was enacted, several other European countries have adopted similar reforms. This is the only volume where this gender quota reform is thoroughly discussed from an economic, political and philosophical point of view. It looks at whether the economic performance of companies is influenced, positively or negatively. The reasons why it has been embraced in some countries and rejected in others are analyzed. Moreover, viability of the gender quota reform is assessed by comparisons to other political interventions in business life in Scandinavia, of which some have been a failure whereas others have shown themselves as successful. This specific reform also serves as a backdrop to other themes related to gender and business. This volume provides a broad comparative study of the access of women to top positions in business in Europe. It also gives detailed discussions of gender relations in family businesses both in East Asia and in Europe.

Purpose
The European Union (EU) has recently adopted gender quotas for corporate boards (CBQ), anticipating ripple effects on women's careers in the companies concerned, as well as throughout the economy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether CBQ has spurred ripple effects and discuss mechanisms hindering or facilitating women's occupancy of top executive positions.


Design/methodology/approach
Norway was the first country in the world to introduce CBQ in 2003, with full effect from 2008. The policy requires company boards to be composed of 40% of each gender. Drawing on original data mapping boards and executive committees in Norway's 200 largest companies, the authors analyze the association between CBQ and the gender composition of executive management almost 15 years after the full implementation. The data include both companies covered by the CBQ and large companies not covered.


Findings
The investigation does not find a positive association between CBQ and more women in executive positions. Thus, the ripple effect hypothesis of CBQ is not supported. CBQ may have contributed to an increased awareness of gender imbalances, yet these findings indicate that to achieve more gender balance in executive positions, scholars and practitioners may need to focus more on gendered conditions and processes in organizations and society throughout executive careers than on the gender composition of boards.


Originality/value
This paper provides empirical analyses of original data 15 years after the implementation of CBQ. The authors further contribute to scholarly debate by identifying and discussing possible mechanisms that explain how requiring more women on corporate boards may – or may not – have ripple effects on executive management.

AbstractThe article investigates how gender differences in school performance are conceptualized in recent Swedish and Norwegian public commission reports against the backdrop of an increasing public focus on "problem boys" and boys' underachievement in school as a policy challenge. We found substantive country differences, despite regime similarities and the considerable level of gender equality norms and policy diffusion within the Nordic region. Whereas Swedish reports address gender differences in school performance and behavior equipped with radical feminist perspectives and theories of patriarchal oppression, Norwegian reports largely avoid explicit references to feminist theory and include analyses of the unfair burdens of boys in school and society. It is argued that the diverging approaches are connected to features of the commissions and of the wider knowledge regimes of the two gender equality forerunners, but also to historical differences in the ideological underpinnings of Swedish and Norwegian gender equality policy making.Related ArticlesIreni‐Saban, Liza. 2013. "Give Me Children or Else I Die: The Politics and Policy of Cross‐Border Reproductive Care." Politics & Policy 41(1): 5–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12004.Svallfors, Stefan, Erica Falkenström, Corrie Hammar, and Anna T. Höglund. 2022. "Networked Reports: Commissioning and Production of Expert Reports on Swedish Health Care Governance." Politics & Policy 50(3): 580–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12462.Tusalem, Rollin F. 2022. "Does Gendered Representation in National Legislatures Promote Substantive Representation and Human Development? Evidence from the Developing World." Politics & Policy 50(6): 1096–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12503.