Opinion article for Jornal Económico: The End of Glass Ceilings in Europe

In this article for Jornal Económico, Catarina Santos, the Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova Alumni and Senior Region Europe Medical Director of Novartis, reflects on recent legislation regarding women on boards.
A decade of political stagnation related to gender equality in administration boards ended on June 7th. The Women on Boards directive was approved by an agreement between the European Parliament and the European Union Council (UE).
This directive aims to promote gender representation balance in the administration boards of the UE’s biggest companies. It was decided that until June 2026, at least 40% of non-executive administration positions, or 33% of all administrations, should be filled by the under-represented gender, usually women.
The directive aims to improve gender equality in big companies in the European Union, where only 30% of the positions on administrative boards are attributed to women, and they hold 1 in every 10 chairman and executive president positions.
In this regard, the Senior Region Europe Medical Director of Novartis highlights the importance of remembering that currently, only 9 out of the 27 EU countries have legislation on gender equality on administration boards.
The under-representation of women’s decision-making roles must be approached as a complex issue, where a variety of political and social efforts have to be made to achieve equality between men and women. What is holding women back, bound by glass ceilings, is not the lack of qualifications but the scarcity of opportunities, concludes Catarina Santos.
Read the full article (original) in Portuguese here.
Source: Jornal Económico