1.2 Scope and aims of the research

This PhD research aims to identify how gender equality can be achieved at the corporate top of companies in the Netherlands and how existing barriers to women’s advancement can be overcome by means of governmental and organizational interventions. As explained in the previous section, the problem of women’s underrepresentation can be approached from multiple disciplines. This PhD research will examine this topic by means of socio-legal research in order to consider and analyze the aspects of gender equality raised in economic and organizational studies, governance studies, and legal studies.

The research investigates which barriers hinder women in their access to the corporate top in the Netherlands and Europe, and will identify whether, and if so how, these barriers interrelate. An identification of the barriers and their interrelatedness forms the basis for the analysis of which interventions could be suitable for overcoming these barriers.

This PhD research subsequently investigates various interventions adopted by governments in the form of affirmative action measures, i.e., gender quota, and organizational interventions implemented by companies. As noted, several European countries have already adopted mandatory gender quota for corporate boards and the Netherlands is currently in the process of doing so. A country that has adopted a gender quota that is similar in terms of scope and sanctions to that proposed for the Netherlands, is Belgium. The Belgian quota legislation has been in effect since 2011, making it useful for purposes of comparison and to learn from. In addition, the Belgian and Dutch corporate law systems are very similar as they both derive from the Code Napoleon, making a comparison of their respective (proposed) quota legislation even more appropriate. The Belgian quota legislation is, therefore, compared with the Dutch proposed quota legislation with the intention of assessing whether the results of the Belgian quota legislation could be predictive of results in the Netherlands.

In addition to analyzing governmental interventions, this PhD research also investigates what organizational interventions have been implemented by Dutch companies to achieve gender equality at their corporate top. The research also analyzes whether these interventions have been successful in overcoming barriers to women’s advancement and if so, how. Finally, it is discussed how these governmental and organizational interventions contribute to achieving gender equality at the corporate top of companies in the Netherlands.