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This article was first published in the March 2017 UK edition of Accounting and Business magazine.

According to PwC’s 2016 Women in Work Index, female boardroom membership in OECD countries has been increasing. Norway currently leads the way, with women making up 39% of board members in publicly listed companies in 2015. In the UK, PwC’s data showed that women accounted for 17% of plc board members.

Candace Johnson, a leading light in the global satellite industry and a serial entrepreneur with huge board experience, thinks that women still face barriers when seeking board positions. Despite her own industry reputation and extensive network, she feels she owes two of her board positions to the introduction of quotas requiring female participation. ‘It took quotas for those companies to come to me,’ she says. 

Johnson is now doing her bit to help other women find board positions, having helped to launch Global Board Ready Women, which ACCA supports. The initiative, involving business schools and professional organisations, has resulted in a searchable database of experienced, capable women suitable for board appointments. ‘We are trying to show the world there are amazing board-ready women out there, and put them in front of people who can appoint them,’ Johnson says.

Norway’s success – current statistics show that female board participation has now stabilised at over 40% – reflects its legal requirement for at least 40% of company board members to be women. However, Turid Solvang, chair of the European Confederation of Directors Associations (ecoDa) and co-founder of the Norwegian Institute of Directors, says there has been a ‘huge discussion’ about how well the quota system has worked.

‘In getting women on boards, it did work definitely,’ she says. ‘What the quota didn’t do was get more women into top management positions. So that is the discussion in Norway now – what do we do to get more women to the top of the corporate ladder? Not as board members, but as management executives.’

Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, an MEP from the Netherlands and former banker, says: ‘Diversity on boards improves the performance of companies. Women tend to be more prudent with risks.’ She believes that targeted searches are the best way to get more women appointed, and she also supports voluntary targets for businesses. However, she opposes quotas. ‘Quotas are for fish and not for women,’ she says. 

Martina Dlabajová, a Czech MEP and former businesswoman and consultant, believes the focus should be on enabling a flexible labour market (with widespread part-time and home working) to help women remain in work while also meeting childcare responsibilities. She encourages companies to incorporate gender equality into their corporate social responsibility initiatives. ‘Boards will include more women simply because corporate social responsibility goes hand in hand with equality,’ she says. ‘Those organisations that take timely, appropriate measures will gain a decisive competitive edge.’ 

ACCA Council member Japheth Katto, a corporate governance consultant, similarly thinks companies need to strengthen their pipeline of female talent. ‘You have to build from the bottom up to start getting women into executive positions,’ he says. ‘Then women can build expertise to equip themselves to become board members.’ 

Katto also calls for board selection processes to be made more transparent, to minimise the risk of appointments going to obvious, known candidates, who are less likely to be women. ‘The system can be a culture of exclusion, so we need to work on that,’ he says. ‘It can be hard for women to break in.’

Be confident – and network

Van Nieuwenhuizen advises aspiring women directors: ‘Work hard, show confidence and don’t be shy.’ 

Datuk Zaiton Mohd Hassan, senior independent non-executive director (NED) of the Malaysia-based multinational Sime Darby Berhad and ACCA Council member, advises women to network – and not only with other women. ‘If 90% of board members are men, sitting with the women is not going to get you appointed, so mingle,’ she says. ‘Strike up a conversation. You have to market yourself, and the best person to market yourself is you. What are you offering to be able to sit on a board? You have to find the right professional way to bring that value across and let other people see what they’re missing out on if they don’t appoint you.’ 

Solvang encourages women to plan their careers early on, to gain experience that will make them attractive board members. ‘My key advice would be to make sure you have P&L responsibilities,’ she says. ‘And if you are taking maternity leave, get back on track as soon as you come back to the company.’

Johnson suggests women could start their board careers – and gain valuable experience – by seeking to join the board of a large not-for-profit organisation or a start-up company. Experience of running your own business can also make you attractive to companies looking to recruit NEDs. ‘Boards are increasingly looking for entrepreneurs,’ Johnson says. Building a network is important too, she observes. ‘The reason people ask me to go on start-up boards is because of my network. I can pretty much call up anybody.’ 

At the same time, women should be selective about the boards they join. ‘Non-executive directors have increasing duties and responsibilities, and before accepting a mandate, you must be well aware of the risks you could face, even from a reputational point of view,’ says Paola Schwizer, ecoDa board member and chair of Nedcommunity, the Italian association of NEDs and independent directors. ‘You should ask questions about the company, the management, the other board members, the shareholder expectations. Being an NED can be a terrific experience, but you must be ready to face difficulties and you must feel confident in your ability to manage them.’

Finding alignment

Professor Lutgart Van den Berghe, executive director of Guberna (the Belgian Governance Institute) and chair of ecoDa’s policy committee, advises a ‘humble’ attitude on gaining your first NED appointment. ‘Be realistic about what your value added can be to that company and how you can deliver that value added,’ she says. ‘You should also be aligned completely with the mission and values of the company.’ 

Once an NED is appointed, Van den Berghe recommends that, initially, they take time to learn how that specific board operates. ‘Board dynamics differ from one company to another and from one chairman to another,’ she says. ‘In the beginning, you should learn the unwritten rules about intervention, about critical position-taking. If you want to be an independent director, you are not there to say yes all the time – but if you want to be a constructive director, you can’t say no all the time. 

‘You need to find the balance between being critical and trying to reach a consensus, because a board is a collective that should reach a consensus.’

Sarah Perrin, journalist