Norway’s government proposed a new bill this week that would require women to make up 40% of the boards for every large and mid-sized business in the country.
Smaller enterprises — those with at least 30 employees and that bring in about $4.7 million in annual revenue — were added to the language this week after large firms were targeted in the initial draft legislation in December, according to Reuters.
The bill will be formally presented in the fall and would affect about 20,000 firms.
Norway originally introduced a 40% gender quota on the boards of publicly listed companies in 2005, making it the first country in the world to do so.
Women make up about 20% of the board membership for Norway’s private companies, the government said, a 15% increase from two decades ago.
Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre said during a press conference Monday that the move will benefit the economy by “using all the resources in our society,” but that he also thought that the process of integrating more women in leadership positions was taking too long.
The government’s proposal is backed by Norway’s largest employer lobby and its main trade union confederation.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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