25 Dutch listed firms have no women on their boards

No Dutch listed companies currently meet the government’s target of 30% women in both their management and supervisory boards, according to the latest issue of the Female Board Index.

In total, 25 of the 84 listed companies in the survey have no women on either board, says Tilburg University professor Mijntje Lückerath who carried out the research.

Sixteen of the firms with no female executive board members appointed new male directors this year, as did 12 of the companies with no women on their non-executive boards. Three in four new appointments this year were men.

The survey also shows that women who are appointed to company boards are  younger than the average male director and four in 10 come from abroad.

In total, 21% of supervisory board directors are female, as are almost 8% of executive board members.

Unilever leads the pack with six out of 12 female supervisory board members but its two-strong executive board are both men. AzkoNobel, Delta Lloyd and Post NL also beat the government targets for their supervisory boards and are at just under 30% in terms of their female executive directors.