Conclusions

Abstract

Women are still under-represented at corporate board level worldwide; echoing the gender profile of other economic and political leadership positions. The situation is somewhat better in Europe than in other regions of the world, but even so, by 2010 women held an average of just 12 per cent of board seats and only three per cent of board chairs in Europe (Chapter 2). The picture has not changed much in most countries over recent years despite the expanding pool of qualified women in managerial and professional positions from which to recruit. For example, women occupy one third of managerial positions in the OECD, and constitute the majority of recent cohorts of university graduates. The growing presence of suitably qualified and experienced women in the recruitment pool may crack the glass ceiling, but the evidence so far is that numbers alone will not break it.