Within five years, the country had reached a 93% compliance rate and was ranked second in the world for gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe is looking at an average female board representation of 11%.

Elin Hurvenes, founder of the Professional Boards Forum, which played a significant role in passing the Norwegian law, will be in Belgium next week to discuss bringing quotas to Belgium’s boardrooms. She is taking part in the panel discussion “To quota or not to quota”, as is Belgium’s federal minister for employment and equal opportunities, Joëlle Milquet. Milquet is expected to provide a position statement on the controversial yet highly effective practice of implementing gender quotas and targets.

Women are currently the majority of university graduates and will soon make up over 50% of the workforce in the world’s richest countries. Yet opportunities aren’t as numerous. Women are still under-represented in the boardrooms of companies at a rate of 1 to 10 in Europe, and their salaries on average are significantly lower than those of their male counterparts. The severe underrepresentation of women in business and government was recently discussed in the EU-commissioned report “More Women in Senior Positions; Key to Economic Stability and Growth”.

Tackling this issue head on is Isabella Lenarduzzi, founder of JUMP Forum, the annual English-language networking event focused solely on women in the workforce and host to the quota panel. In its fourth year, the Brussels event aims to bring attention to the increasing impact that women are having on the economy and in business.

JUMP has worked hard to prove that this gender disparity isn’t simply unfair but is poor business. Gender balance has been shown to lead to more innovation, better business performance and improved corporate governance. Companies with more women in senior management positions increase the total return for shareholders by 35%.

A report on gender parity from Brussels’ Bain & Company, a strategy consulting firm, reveals that the vast majority of both men and women in Europe report that they’re convinced of the benefits of gender balance in the workplace. The same findings reveal that despite understanding the benefits of parity, senior management in 75% of European companies has not made it a stated and visible priority, while 80% of firms have not committed adequate funding or resources to initiatives.

Due to this contradiction, governing bodies are forcing companies’ hands. Since Norway passed its law, other countries have followed, with legislation promised if companies fail to comply. In 2007, Spain passed a similar law, and the Netherlands and France have put forth proposals for quotas. Britain, Sweden and Germany are also considering gender measures.

When politics are too slow, some companies take the issue into their own hands, such as Deutsche Telekom. The largest telecommunications company in Europe announced last month a mandate of 30% of middle- and uppermanagement positions to be filled by women by 2015.

Quotas in Belgium

Here in Belgium, quotas are also making headway. In 1994, a political quota was enacted that required 50% of the election list be female. Just last year, Belgium’s corporate governance code was reviewed and a sentence added addressing the need to work on gender balance. While the code is non-binding and no actions were suggested, awareness of the issue is increasing.

Building on this growing recognition of gender disparity in positions of power, Senator Sabine De Béthune (CD&V) stated last November that she wanted to legislate on the quotas of women in companies listed on the stock exchange. Minister Milquet immediately came out in support of the idea, and it is now being discussed.

Milquet ‘s opinion will be listened to closely at the JUMP event. In addition to quotas, a number of speakers will be on hand at the forum to accelerate the conversation from why women in business are important to how business leaders can improve the situation. Now that both big companies and policymakers recognise that business needs more women, there is an opportunity for dialogue on how to empower women in the workplace.

This year’s keynote speaker, the Paris-based gender in business consultant Avivah Wittenberg Cox, wrote the best seller Why Women Mean Business and will present a preview of her newest book How Women Mean Business.

JUMP Forum 2010
29 April, 8.30-19.00
Hotel Van der Valk
Brussels Airport
www.forumjump.eu