Fredrik Engelstad and Mari Teigen (Eds.), Firms, Boards and Gender Quotas: Comparative Perspectives, Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, 2012, ISBN 978‐1‐78052‐672‐0, 265 pages

• Author: Toni G. Wolfman
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12019
• Date: 01 July 2013
• Published date: 01 July 2013

Book Review

Fredrik Engelstad and Mari Teigen (Eds.), Firms, Boards and Gender Quotas: Comparative

Perspectives, Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78052-672-0, 265 pages

Over the decade since the Norwegian parliamentenacted

the f‌irst quota lawregulating the gender composition of

corporate boards, the issue of governmental mandates as a

response to widespread gender imbalance in economic deci-

sion making, particularlyon corporate boards, has become an

increasinglyhot topic around the world. By the end of 2012, at

least 17 countries had adopted quota legislation affecting

either state-owned enterprises or publicly listed companies

or both. In a number of other countries, stock exchanges or

corporate governance codes have imposed disclosure

requirements on listed companies, often accompanied by

suggested percentagegoals, to encourage the appointment of

more women to corporate boards of directors. The contro-

versy over the 2012 proposal for a European Union-wide

quota makes it clear that this issue will not go away soon.

In their new book, Firms, Boards and Gender Quotas: Com-

parative Perspectives, the authors contribute to the conversa-

tion by analyzing the conditions that have given rise to

legislative quotas in certaincountries and the implications of

their enactment. Digging deeply into historical patterns of

economic, social, and political organization, with particular

emphasis on the Nordic countries, the authors of the f‌ive

chapters contained in Part III of this volume (entitled

“Gender Quotas to Boards of Directors”) provide the reader

with helpful insights into matters such as the reasons why

quotas were enactedin Norway but not in Sweden, the limits

to state intervention in the economies of both countries, and

the pragmatic considerations that have transformed debates

about gender equality. For those readers interested in the

likelihood that efforts to introduce quotas might succeed or

fail in other countries, these fact-based analyses are instruc-

tive. In several instances, the authors raise important ques-

tions about the kinds of strategies that might succeed in

advancing women to other positions of power.

Before reaching Part III, however, the editors include an

introductory section that undertakes a comparative analysis

of 12 WesternEuropean countries based on survey data from

2002 to 2008 to assess the extent to which persistent gender

inequality in post-industrial countries can be explained by

structural features of the labor market. This section is fol-

lowed by two chapters that look at the ways in which intra-

familial relationships and cultureaffect gendered patterns of

economic power, focusing on family enterprises in Italy and

Norway and on small businesses in Japan, South Korea, and

Taiwan.

With apologies to those chapter authors who are not

singled out in this short review, here are a few of the obser-

vations from the chapters that this reader found most inter-

esting.

In examining the Norwegian enactment of a gender quota

law and the spread of similar legislationto other countries in

Western Europe and Malaysia, Mari Teigen concludes that

nation-based factors rather than universal theories provide

the most compelling explanation of this phenomenon.

Although all of these countries already had some form of

political quota affecting the composition of their national

parliaments, and there is some evidence of a “follow the

leader” mentality, Teigen identif‌ies specif‌ic conditions and

events in each country that appear most relevant to the

enactment of corporate board quotas. For example, in

Norway,widespread concern over the lack of women in high

positions in the business world, belying Norway’s proud

tradition of support for gender equality, was exacerbated by

the deregulation and privatization of state-owned enter-

prises which threatened the impactof existing gender equal-

ity legislation affecting publicly appointed boards. A major

governmental change in Spain opened the door to a range of

welfare policy reforms there, while in Iceland, the historic

male dominance of the economy and nepotism in both poli-

tics and economic life were blamed for the f‌inancial crisis in

Iceland and led to activism for gender equality reforms.

Focusing on Norway and Sweden, Vibeke Heidenreich

provides a fascinating look at two countries that many

observers view as similar in terms of both their political

economic regimes and their concern for gender equality.

While noting many commonalities, Heidenreich explores

signif‌icant differences between the two countries that in his

view account for the different outcomes of national debates

over quota legislation. While Norway’s economic sector is

highly regulated and the state exerts extensive ownership

interests, the Swedish economy is dominated by a few very

large private enterprises, and most listed companies have

only one controlling owner. As to attitudes towards gender

equality, the Norwegian ideal of a gender-balanced society,

in which men and women play complementary but often

different roles, accepts both aff‌irmative action and state

intervention. In Sweden, where class equality has been

viewed as more important than gender equality, growing

gender disparities in both the political and economic sectors

led feminists to agitate for state intervention in a way that

408

Corporate Governance: An International Review, 2013, 21(4): 408–409

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

doi:10.1111/corg.12019