Women on Boards in Europe: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

As some international studies show, women’s employment makes economic sense. The OECD Report (2008, pp. 11) estimates that a quarter of Europe’s annual economic growth and a half of the increase in Europe’s overall employment rate since 1995 is attributable to narrowing the gap between the employment rates of men and women. A report by Goldman Sachs in 2007 reports that closing the gap between male and female employment rates could potentially increase the USA GDP by as much as 9 per cent and the Eurozone GDP by 13 per cent (Daly 2007). Research commissioned by the Swedish Presidency of the EU in 2009 estimates that a gender balanced labour market (female activity rates, full-time employment rates and productivity rates rise to equal men’s) could boost the GDP of the EU Member States by an unweighted average of 27 per cent (Löfström, 2009, pp. 26).