Is the Norwegian Experiment Working?
Not surprisingly there was considerable backlash against Norway’s 2003 law mandating that women make up 40 percent of corporate boards. The most common objection was that there were insufficient qualified women in Norway. In fact one male executive complained that boards would have to recruit “escorts” to meet the quota. There were also dire predictions that replacing male board members with females would cause boards to lose their expertise, that shareholder confidence would plummet and that overseas investors would withdraw their holdings from Norway and take them elsewhere. We are now four years down the track from 2006 legislation making the 40% quota mandatory and none of the direct predictions have come to pass. Norwegian business women responded to the new law by creating a plethora of women-focused executive search firms and training, mentoring and networking programs. Moreover most of the 300 women who have taken seats on Norway’s are better educated and qualified than the men
