Cabinet Against Gender Quotas for Top Businesses
The Cabinet today voiced its opposition to a EU directive proposal that seeks to boost gender equality by introducing gender quotas for non-executive board member positions in publicly listed companies.
According to the government’s communication unit Estonia supports a more gender balanced representation in boardrooms, but rigorously opposes a mandatory quota. The Cabinet prefers measures that do not curtail freedom of enterprise, the statement said.
The government commented that Estonia supports extensive freedom for companies in appointing board members, citing the reason that companies operate in very diverse lines of business.
The principal aim of the proposed EU directive is to substantially increase women’s representation in boardrooms and level the gender playing field in business decision making.
The directive proposes a 40 percent gender quota for all non-executive board positions in publicly listed companies by 2020 and in companies where the state is a shareholder by 2018. Small and mid-sized companies will be exempt.
In EU’s top companies, women occupy 13.7 percent of leadership positions, a segment growing by 0.6 percent a year, according to government figures. While in Estonia women made up nearly 15 percent of the business leadership in 2003, the figure has dropped to 6.7 percent in 2012.
Eleven publicly listed companies in Estonia would fall under the purview of the directive.