Norwegian companies are nearing a key year-end deadline to populate their boards with women. But they’re short by thousands.
The push for increased equality at the echelons of corporate power dates back almost two decades in Norway, and late last year a law was introduced mandating no more than 60% of one gender on boards of directors. In practice, that often means ensuring at least 40% of executives are women.
Of the about 8,000 companies which will need to comply by Dec. 31, many have been dragging their feet. With only days to go until it’s 2025, they’re speeding up recruitment.
“Many companies have been in a rush in the past months,” said Hege Rodland, founder of Matae AS, a company that works with strategy and recruitment to male-heavy boards.
She says having women on boards broadens discussions and ensures better decision making — and women usually come more prepared to meetings. Still, there is resistance. “Some companies are planning to reduce the size of their boards” to comply with the new rules, she says.
The law is applied gradually: This first year, it only concerns the largest companies with revenue of more than 100 million kroner ($8.8 million). That means about 5,000 more women will have to join boards in the coming days, according to government figures.
The consequences of non-compliance are potentially dire: a court can ultimately shut the company down. In practice, it’s more likely that companies will eventually conform even if they miss the deadline, Rodland said.
In September, Rodland went through the gender composition of boards in her region Vestlandet, on the country’s west coast, and found that only roughly one in four companies were in compliance. Most companies had about 20% women board members, she said. There’s no updated national data available.
The bigger issue for companies still looking to beef up their boards is that “there will be tough competition for the most qualified ones,” Rodland said, adding the challenge for many companies is to look outside their traditional recruiting grounds.
By 2028 the law will apply to roughly 20,000 companies, according to estimates by Norway’s business association, NHO. Another 8,000 women are needed by that year, the government has calculated.
One company that’s been working on pipelining women for leadership roles is DNB Bank ASA, Norway’s biggest bank. It’s not a coincidence that women hold its top jobs, Chief Financial Officer Ida Lerner said.
The bank is focused on always having a qualified pool of women ready to step up, she said in an interview with Bloomberg, adding that equality needs to be kept high on the agenda.
“Once you stop engaging with this, you fall behind,” Lerner said.
Rodland, who works to source women board members, said companies will eventually come around, even if they’re reluctant to comply now.
She compares it to banning smoking inside restaurants, a law Norway introduced in 2004, saying “everyone was skeptical” at first, but “now we love the clean air.”
“Companies, too, will come to see the benefits of diversity,” she said.
