Women in the Boardroom: Institutional and Organizational Approaches to Gender Equality

Objective

"This project is a major study of women on corporate boards in Europe. It will answer 3 significant research questions:
1) How do different corporate governance institutions affect the number and role of women on corporate boards?
2) What is the link between the number of women on corporate boards and gender diversity at senior management levels?
3) What effect do affirmative action policies have on the number and role of women on corporate boards and on corporate reputation?
The project will address these research questions at 2 levels of analysis:
1) It will provide an international overview of developments in the number of women on corporate boards and senior management positions in Europe, North America and Australia as well as the introduction of measures such as mandatory or voluntary quotas, targets and guidelines to improve women’s representation across national contexts.
2) It will examine detailed comparative case studies of the United Kingdom, Norway and Germany. These 3 countries represent the different approaches that can be taken to augment the representation of women on boards. In the UK, Lord Davies’ recommendations represent a voluntary approach. In Norway, a quota mandating that 40% of board seats in listed firms are held by women represents a regulatory approach with clear instructions and sanctions. In Germany, the decision to introduce a flexible quota represents a middle way between entirely voluntary and regulatory approaches.
The results of this project will be valuable for both research and practice. Cross-national research in this field is rare, and cross-national studies combining quantitative and qualitative methods even more so. Understanding the impact of differences in corporate governance, the relation between women directors and women senior managers, and the effect of affirmative action policies across Europe contributes both to the creation of a more gender-equal society and to the formation of more effective corporate boards."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• social sciences sociology governance

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG - Marie-Curie Action: "Career Integration Grants"

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2011-CIG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG)

Coordinator