Establishing gender equality is one of the founding values of the European Union, yet women are still underrepresented in decision-making positions in Europe. According to the European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE), women represent just 32.3% of presidents, board members and employee representatives, and 21.5% of CEOs, executives and non-executives of the largest listed companies in Europe. The situation is much the same in other sectors, including governments, financial institutions and national academies of science.
Beyond the importance of equal representation, our research at the AXA Lab on Gender Equality shows gender-balanced leadership has many benefits. Given that women make up half of the earth’s population, ensuring that they’re equally represented among potential candidates for a leadership post results provides larger pool being available; this, in turn, leads to a higher quality of the person selected. Thus, when women are involved in leadership positions which were traditionally male-dominated, there is a higher probability to have more qualified leaders.
