Luxembourg's Ministry of Gender Equality and the Ministry of Economy have issued a statement that details how the government's efforts for better representation of women in decision-making bodies is bearing fruit.
The Ministry of Economy has set up a monitoring system to track gender distribution in the administrative organs of a total of 92 public institutions, corporations and economic interest groups. These organisations in which the State has an interest include a total of ??841 directors, including 496 state representatives. Between January 2014 and March 2015, the Governing Council has made 208 appointments to these bodies, including 78 women, equivalent to 37.5%.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Etienne Schneider, said at a press conference on Tuesday "With this proactive approach, the overall percentage of women members of boards that fall under this monitoring programme has increased to 22.35% as of 1 April 2015. Among the state representatives, the rate is even 27.82%. Government efforts in favour of a more balanced representation of women and men at decision making level is gradually beginning to bear fruit. "At the end of 2013, 19.17% of the board members of the institutions were women. Given the slight differences in the composition of the sample analysed, some caution is nevertheless needed for the comparison of results of late 2013 and 2015.
The Minister for Equal Opportunities, Lydia Mutsch, appealed to the private sector to build on the measures taken by the State to increase the representation of women in decision making bodies of companies: "It is essential that other economic actors are represented in the boards follow the example of the government and align themselves in their proposals for future appointment to the objectives of 40% of the under-represented sex to which the government intends to bring up to 2019."
Minister Mutsch recalled that the "Female Board Pool" is a very useful tool in this context: it is an initiative that aims to bring together the motivated and experienced women, could be of a board mandate administration, and companies looking for such skills.
Photo by MEGA (L-R): Minister Lydia Mutsch; Minister Etienne Schneider
