This event showcased the work of the G20 EMPOWER Alliance and the OECD to support the implementation of commitments to strengthen women’s access to leadership positions in the private sector. This presentation shares results from the OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2021, which features a comparison across all OECD and G20 countries of progress made to enhance the role of women on boards of directors and in senior management.

1. Advancing Women in Private Sector Leadership
A G20/OECD Review of Progress
28 April 2021
Mathilde Mesnard, Deputy Director, OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs

2. • Addressing gender inequality in leadership is not
just a moral imperative; it can also lead to wider
benefits.
• There is a business case for improving
diversity in management:
 Companies with at least 1 female director
generated on average 3.5% higher returns on
equity than those with 0 female directors;
 Companies with more than 15% female
senior managers had 50% higher profitability
compared to those with less than 10% female
managers.
• While causality is not clearly established, some
studies suggest that having more women in
leadership positions can contribute to
better corporate governance and firm
performance.
The Case for Action
Share-price performance for differing percentage of female
board representation since 2010 (for 3000 companies)
Source: Credit Suisse Research, MSCI ACWI, Thomson Reuters.

3. The State of Play
OECD standards to advance gender equality in the private sector
 G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance
 OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of
SOEs
 OECD Recommendation on Gender Equality in
Education, Employment, and Entrepreneurship

4. • Biennial publication to support the implementation of good corporate
governance practices.
• Provides easily accessible and up-to-date, factual underpinning for
understanding countries’ institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks.
• The 2021 (fifth) edition features:
What is the OECD Corporate Governance Factbook?
42 TABLES 63 FIGURES 50 JURISDICTIONS • all OECD,
• G20, and
• Financial Stability Board members

5. Highlights of the 2021 Edition of the Factbook
Gender diversity on boards and in senior management
The Corporate, Market and Ownership
Landscape
The Corporate Governance Framework
The Rights of Shareholders and Key
Ownership Functions
• New data on gender composition of boards and senior
management.
• Considers impact and effectiveness of policies
underpinning board diversity.
The Corporate Board of Directors

6. OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2021
Disclosure requirements
• Many jurisdictions require/recommend listed companies
to disclose the gender composition of their boards
(60% as of end 2020), an increase from the previous
biennium (49% as of end 2018).
• Some jurisdictions also require/recommend disclosure
of gender diversity policies.
• Disclosure of gender composition of senior
management is far less common – 72% of
jurisdictions have no such provisions.
• However, a growing number of jurisdictions require
disclosure of gender pay gaps within firms, e.g.:
– Australia’s gender equality indicators (2012)
– France’s gender equality index (2018)
– Switzerland's wage equality analysis (2018)
Provisions to disclose data on the gender composition
of boards and of senior management, as of 2020

7. OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2021
Provisions to enhance gender diversity on boards
• Almost a quarter of surveyed jurisdictions (24%) have adopted mandatory quotas, while 30% rely on
voluntary targets, and 8% have adopted both.
• Provisions applicable to SOEs are
generally more ambitious than those set for
listed companies.
• For listed companies, targets are generally
set at higher threshold than quotas.
• 12 jurisdictions have adopted sanctions in
case mandatory provisions are not achieved.

8. OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2021
Women's participation on boards and in management
• In practice, women account for a much higher share of senior management positions
than of board members.
• In 2019, 44% of jurisdictions had at
least 1/3 women in management, while
only 20% of jurisdictions had at
least 1/3 women on boards.
• Conversely, only one jurisdiction had
less than 15% of women in senior
management positions, whereas 36%
of jurisdictions had less than 15%
of women on boards.
 As these figures have remained
relatively static over 2017-2019, there
remains scope for further progress.

9. OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2021
Impact of provisions to foster board diversity
• Jurisdictions with quotas have attained greater board diversity on average (27.4%), than
jurisdictions with voluntary targets (23.3%), and those with no quota or target in place (18.9%).
• Quotas can encourage an increase in
the number of women on boards in the
short term
– France: 13% (2011) 44.3% (2019)
– Germany: 16% (2009) 33.3% (2019)
– Italy: 3% (2009) 36.5% (2019)
• However, jurisdictions with no
provisions have recorded a higher
progression rate (17%) than those
with quotas and targets (11%) over
2017-2019.
 Continuous progress may become
difficult to sustain once higher
threshold levels are attained.

10. OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2021
Importance of other measures besides quotas/targets
 Additional or complementary measures are also important to advance women in leadership
positions.
• Shareholder engagement
– United States (26.1%)
• Corporate Governance Codes
– Australia (31.2%)
• Disclosure requirements
– Key monitoring tool
 One size does not fill all – range of
approaches to address under-representation
of women on boards.

11. Regulating, supporting
and incentivising
companies to accelerate
progress
Reforming legal and policy
frameworks
Peer-to-peer networks and
advocacy initiatives
Raising awareness of board
diversity in listed companies
Tools to incentivise
companies to take action
Commitment by
company leadership
Targets and metrics
Adopting diversity and
inclusion policies
Revising recruitment and
promotion policies and
processes
Training, mentorship
and networking
programmes
Government-led, private
sector-led, and unconscious
bias training programmes
Women’s networks
Mentorship programmes
 Recent OECD/EMPOWER report provides a typology of complementary practices based on
a survey of EMPOWER members, and analysis of over 100 public, private, and public-private
initiatives, policies and programmes.
Practices to promote women in leadership roles
Findings of the OECD report prepared for the G20 EMPOWER Alliance

12. THANK YOU
https://www.oecd.org/corporate/