3.2.4.1 Figures

The Belgian Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (Instituut voor de Gelijkheid van Vrouwen en Mannen)1 (Institute) has been monitoring the progress in increasing the number of women on the boards of Belgian listed companies with a view to analyzing the results of the quota legislation. In 2019, their third study was published. Table 3.1 shows the percentages of women on the management boards2 of (listed) companies for the years up to and including 2017.3

The report of the Institute shows that in 2017, 64.2 percent of the listed companies complied with the quota legislation (slightly lower than the 66.1 percent that also takes Belgium’s five state-owned companies and the National Lottery into account, see Table 3.1), whereas 35.8 percent did not. Of the large, listed companies (that had to comply with the quota in 2017), 31 percent did not comply with the legislation, whereas of the small, listed companies (that had until 2019 to comply with the quota), 44.7 percent did not comply.5 The large, listed companies that did not comply with the legislation in 2017 were asked for their reasons for non-compliance. Most of these companies seem to have had legitimate reasons for not yet being able to comply: (1) they did not fulfil the requirement that the value of the freely marketable shares is less than 50 percent of the total share value and had, therefore, to be treated as small companies; or (2) due to a later initial public offering the quota applied to them at a later moment. Only three listed companies (4.2 percent of the total number of companies) failed to provide any explanation whatsoever and did, therefore, not comply with the legislation.6 There is no known example in which sanctions were imposed.7

The Institute has not published any figures after 2017. However, in 2020 it was announced in the newspapers that one-third of the management board members in Belgian companies in 2020 were women.8 The State Secretary of Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity (Gendergelijkheid, Gelijke Kansen en Diversiteit) (State Secretary) indicated that a new progress report will be drafted in the summer of 2021.9 More updated figures can be found in other databases, for instance in the database of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE),10 but it is hard to compare figures from different databases because databases differ in terms of scope. The legislation will be evaluated in 2023, twelve years after its entry into force.11