5.1 Introduction

This chapter entails an in-depth investigation into gender equality organizational interventions (interventions) that have been adopted and implemented by four large Dutch companies with a view to increasing the number of women at their corporate tops. Globally, and in the Netherlands, women are underrepresented at the corporate top. In 2020, 29.5 percent of the supervisory board members and 12.4 percent of the management board members of Dutch listed companies were women.1 From 2013 to 2020, a legislative target figure aimed at achieving the participation of at least 30 percent women and men in management and supervisory boards applied to large Dutch companies. This legislation was unsuccessful in increasing female board representation to 30 percent as no sanctions were in place for non-compliance therewith. The Netherlands is, therefore, currently in the process of introducing mandatory quota legislation requiring that supervisory boards are comprised of at least one third women and one third men.2

The Dutch context is particularly relevant because of its prevalent ‘part-time employment culture’.3 The Netherlands has the highest part-time employment rate4 in the world. Of the total workforce, 36.9 percent works part-time.5 By comparison, the average part-time employment rate for OECD countries is 16.7 percent.6 Women and men work part-time in the Netherlands.7 However, women work part-time more frequently than men, resulting in less overall gender equality for women in the workplace.8

Interventions have been designed to redress women’s underrepresentation and to promote gender equality in the workplace. Studies into such interventions in the Netherlands employing qualitative methods are mainly conducted in a university context,9 rather than in the context of companies. This chapter seeks to identify which interventions have been implemented by companies to increase the number of women at the corporate top. It investigates how these interventions work in practice and how they relate to barriers hindering women’s access to the corporate top. A multiple case study approach was used to investigate interventions at four Dutch companies. The central research questions this chapter aims to answer are: (1) how have Dutch companies implemented organizational interventions to increase the number of women at the corporate top and to achieve gender equality; and (2) how do organizational interventions overcome the barriers to women’s advancement and contribute to getting more women into the corporate top?