6.2.2 Governmental interventions in the form of quota

Chapter 3 discusses which interventions are adopted by governments and discusses whether these interventions are successful in achieving gender equality at the corporate tops of companies.

The sub-research question of this study is:

What governmental interventions have countries adopted to increase the number of women at the corporate top and to achieve gender equality?

As explained in Chapter 1, the study for this part of the PhD research was conducted by selecting two countries that have adopted gender quota legislation or are in the process of doing so: Belgium and the Netherlands. The specific research question that was operationalized for this study and answered in Chapter 3 is therefore:

What are the differences between the Belgian quota legislation and the Dutch proposed quota legislation, and what can the Dutch legislator learn from the Belgian gender quota legislation in order to succeed in increasing the number of women on corporate boards in the Netherlands?

From 2013-2020, a target figure was in place in the Netherlands that aimed for at least 30 percent women and men on the management boards and supervisory boards of large Dutch companies. Companies were obliged to comply with this target figure legislation or had to explain in their annual reports why they did not comply. Non-compliance was not sanctioned. The legislation failed to increase the number of women on boards to the required 30 percent and, therefore, the Netherlands is presently in the process of introducing mandatory quota of 30 percent women for the supervisory boards of listed companies. Since the former target figure was unsuccessful in increasing the number of women to 30 percent, the question is whether the proposed mandatory quota legislation will be.

Belgium adopted mandatory quota in 2011, with similar provisions and sanctions to the Dutch proposed mandatory quota. Because the Belgian quota has been in force for quite some time, it is relevant to investigate what results it has yielded and whether the Belgian quota could be predictive of results in the Netherlands. The comparison between Belgian and Dutch quota legislation is apt because both Dutch and Belgian law originate from the same Civil Code, the Code Napoleon.

To that end, Chapter 3 discusses and compares the Belgian quota legislation with the Dutch proposed quota legislation and describes what the Netherlands can learn from the Belgian quota in order to be successful in increasing the number of women on corporate boards and ultimately to achieve gender equality.

The research pertaining to the study in Chapter 3 was conducted by means of doctrinal research, entailing the analysis of legislation, parliamentary documents and literature.

The findings of this chapter show that there is considerable overlap between the Belgian gender quota legislation and the Dutch proposed quota legislation. The quotas are quite similar in terms of the type of companies to which they apply, the percentage of women that the quotas require, and the sanctions for non-compliance. The Belgian approach shows that the quota is successful in getting more women onto the corporate boards of the companies to which it applies. However, more recent figures are needed to assess whether the quota was effective for every Belgian company to which it applies, because the most recent progress report of 2019 indicated that some companies were still not compliant with the law in 2019, the year of the final implementation deadline. However, the Dutch proposed mandatory quota may very well yield better results than the former Dutch target figure, as the Belgian case seems to predict. The findings of the research contribute to answering the research question by concluding that the Dutch proposed quota could be an effective means for increasing the number of women on corporate boards in the Netherlands, especially now that similar sanctions to Belgium will be put in place for non-compliance with the Dutch quota. However, the overall progress made as a result of the quota may be somewhat limited, because the Belgian quota has also shown that the increase in numbers of women was only accomplished for positions that were specifically targeted by the gender quota and not for other positions. Based on that finding, this study concludes that it is expected that the Dutch quota may only be effective for those positions specifically targeted by the Dutch quota legislation and not for other positions.

The study contributes to filling an existing gap in the literature by comparing the Belgian gender quota with the Dutch proposed gender quota, as no studies have yet been conducted that draw this comparison. As indicated, this comparison is relevant because the Belgian and Dutch gender quota legislation have much in common. The study also contributes to the overarching theory of this PhD research, liberal feminism, because it shows how gender equality could be achieved through governmental interventions in the form of affirmative action measures (gender quotas).