This document summarizes the goals, methods, findings and best practices of an EU project on promoting women in leadership. The project analyzed representation of women in managerial positions across several European countries over time, reviewed literature on regulatory and industry initiatives, and interviewed companies to identify best practices. Key findings include the generally low representation of women in middle to top management. Regulatory approaches varied across countries from soft to hard quotas. Best practices identified from case studies of international companies focused on commitment from top leadership, flexible work policies, mentoring programs, and business rationales for diversity.

1. STRATEGIES AND BEST PRACTICES TO INCREASE THE
SHARE OF WOMEN IN MIDDLE AND HIGHER
MANAGEMENT POSITIONS
EU PROJECT PROMOTING
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

2. Goals and focus
2
Three central questions:
1. What is the current situation of women’s representation in
managerial positions and what ‘speed of change’ over last 5
to 10 years;
2. What – possible - effectiveness or impact of binding and
non-binding governmental regulations and of voluntary
industry initiatives and policies at the national and European
levels, as far as investigated and reported on in the literature;
3. Good and best practises

3. Methodological approach:
3
 Cross-country comparison
 Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden, UK plus
Norway
 Data analysis
 Literature review (law, economics)
 Industry – good and best - practices; interviews

4. Graph1– percentageemployedfemalemanagersallages/alleducationlevels(Source:EurostatLFSDatabase –EmploymentRates –
Employmentbysex,occupation and highestlevel ofeducation attained, 10April2014)
40%
38%
36%
34%
32%
30%
28%
26%
24%
22%
20%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
10
European Union (28 countries) Germany France
Italy Poland Sweden
United Kingdom Norway
Female managers

5. Percentage female board members
(Source:EC databaseon genderbalancein decision-makingpositions– Boardmembers,7 March 2014)
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
5
European Union (28 countries) United Kingdom France
Italy Poland Germany
Norway Sweden

6. Some conclusions:
6
 % of women representation in middle, higher and top
management positions is overall still quite low
 while differences are to be noted, the speed of change
in middle and higher management positions is
generally low in all researched countries and in all age
groups
 the speed of change at board level is quite high in some
countries as a result of recent regulatory steps, but EU
average is still very low

7. Explaining cross-country divergences
7
Different welfare systems (Esping-Anderson, 1990);
 Liberal (UK)
 Conservative (Italy, France, Germany)
 Social-democrat (Norway, Sweden)
 plus: post-communist (Poland)
Cultural differences (Hofstede’s cultural index, 2010):
 Individualism/collectivism
 Masculinity/femininity
 Level of power distance

8. Multitude of regulatory responses
8
 CEE-countries -> absence of public regulation
 Poland -> pure self-regulation, but incentive for this in the law
 UK -> self-regulation for private sector, but soft quota for public
service
 Sweden -> self-regulation and soft public policy (government ‘letter
of
 governance’ to public companies), but no quota rule/targets
 Netherlands -> soft public policy, setting legal target of 30%
but no sanctions
 Germany -> conditioned self-regulation but legislative proposals for
quota for listed companies and certain public services
 Italy, France and Norway -> hard quota regime, including sanctions
EU -> moving from soft law (recommendation) to hard law
approach (directive) but still rather soft target rule

9. Discovery of Best Practices
Approach
 Experiences of 6 selected international companies, in different
industries and EU countries: Accor, Gekoplast, H&M, Sandvik,
Syngenta, T‐Systems
 Desk research: public information sources (website, annual
reports)
 Per company two interviews:
 HR director
 female senior manager (tenure, BU management, p&l
responsibility)
 Preparation: ‘Company Briefing’ and ‘Outline themes for
interviews’
 Telephone interviews of 60 ‐ 90 minutes
 Summary of the interviews (key elements) including
quotes for approval to be included in publication 4

10. Interviews and desk research
Themes
1. Facts and statistics
2. Business case for gender diversity and
integration in the organization
3. Employment conditions, facilities, policies
4. Corporate culture
5. Best practices

11. Interviews with female senior managers
Themes
 Career history and deciding moments
 Barriers and enablers for advancement of women
in management
 Best Practices and advice

12. Interviews
Two specific questions
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1. How to deal with so‐called ‘modest behaviours'
of women?
2. How to engage men and deal with resistance
against plans and policies aimed at promoting
(more) women in management?

13. Facts and statistics
Company data
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Company Accor Gekoplast H&M Sandvik Syngenta T‐Systems
Industry Hotel Plastics Fashion Industrial Agriculture ICT
Incorporated France Poland Sweden Sweden Switzerld Germany
Revenue 2013 € 5.5 bln € 16.7 bln € 9.6 bln $ 14 bln € 9.5 bln
No. employees 160,000 < 500 116,000 47,000 28,000 50,000
% women employees 46% 89% 18.5% 33% 33%
% women NED/SB 40% 0 55% 10% 20% 37%
% women ExCo/EB 9% 33% 37.5% 33% 22% 0

14. Best Practices
H&M
14
1. Diversity is in the company’s “genes”, since 1947.
2. In‐company cross‐gender mentoring program
(for specific departments) to create awareness
around women’s experience of the culture.
3. Innovative approach to motivate upcoming
women by having senior women talk about their
career (storytelling) and for instance how to deal
with moving your family to another country in
films on the intranet.

15. Best Practices
Sandvik
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1. The business case and the why, i.e. 4 business
drivers behind it.
2. The strategy for inclusion: “Guideline of small
acts of inclusion”.
3. Global intranet portal with tools, including a global
movie (10 minutes) about the business case and
drivers, in different languages, and a dialogue kit,
checklist for D&I perspective in recruitment
processes.

16. Best Practices
Syngenta
16
1. Maternity policy: full pay for 9 months plus one month bonus, if you
keep in regular contact with the person who is covering your maternity
leave (UK).
2. Flexible working (from home) is possible and well facilitated by IT systems.
Teleconferencing is used globally, and accommodated to country’s time
zone.
3. Global mentoring program for women. Objective is to identify and
train women who have potential to grow into senior management
roles. Key features:
1. To support their confidence and development as leader.
2. To give access to a wider network in the company.
3. Mentors can be male or female. Mentors are from different
business units than mentees, so there is no hierarchical
relationship between them.

17. Best Practices
T‐Systems
17
1. Drive from top management and immediate
appointment of senior women
2. Target as a tool to change HR processes and culture, not
as an absolute number
3. Business case rationale: quality of
decisionmaking

18. Best Practices
Accor
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1. Group International Diversity Charter
2. Diversity training, including recruitment
3. Company wide womens network and
mentoring

19. Best Practices
Gekoplast
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1. Project approach
2. Flexible working policy
3. Quarterly assessments. Individual talks
between managers and employee that help
identify and coach female managers.

20. Lessons learned
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The lack of data of appropriate size and quality.
Actions and policies must be developed in
accordance with company specificities.
The commitment of top management is
absolutley necessary
Top level of management (non executive boards)
will not be gender equal without quotas.

21. Personal advice from women senior
managers
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Never underestimate yourself
Be stubborn. When you are sure something, stick to your
conviction
Show what you have achieved, and don’t hide.
Ask for a chance
Remember that everyone is responsible for her own
development.

22. Thank you for your attention
31
http://womeninmanagement.eu/
http://www.cec-managers.org/