Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — Heidi Marie Petersens knowledge of
strategy and spreadsheets at a board meeting in Norway last year
made a male colleague sit up and take note.
“Wow! You actually know something about business, the man
said after the meeting, Petersen says. The 49-year-old mother of
two now serves on the boards of 11 companies, including Norsk
Hydro ASA, Europes second-largest aluminum producer, and Aker
Kvaerner ASA, Norways biggest engineering company.
Under a Norwegian law passed four years ago, women must fill
40 percent of the countrys corporate board seats effective
tomorrow. The measure affects 487 public companies ranging from
StatoilHydro ASA, Norways largest company by stock market value
at $99 billion, to Exense ASA, an Internet consultant, at $9.5
million. Most companies already have complied under media pressure
and the threat of being shut down by the government.
The corporate governance measure underscores Norways
commitment to gender equality. The nation of 4.7 million already
has the highest ratio of female directors worldwide and more women
than men in government.
Critics say the rule risks sacrificing qualification for
quota. The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise says shareholders
should pick board members and measures should be voluntary.
Quotas are “a bunch of nonsense, says Bente Lowendahl, 49,
who was named the first female professor at the Norwegian School
of Management five years ago. “Im glad I was chosen for my
merits and not because I was a woman, she says.
Gradual Change
Lowendahl, who has a doctorate in applied economics, says
shes too busy to sit on any corporate boards. Petersen, the 49-
year-old mother on 11 boards, has a masters degree in chemistry
and mathematics and worked in the oil industry for almost 20
years.
The rules took effect for state-owned companies in January
2004. The law exempts private limited companies because many of
them are small, family enterprises. Other companies may choose to
give up their public listings to avoid the requirement.
The move is designed to employ more of Norways workforce in
steering companies and ending the tradition of picking board
members from a small pool, according to Ansgar Gabrielsen, the
Conservative party politician who helped pass the legislation.
With unemployment at a 20-year low of 1.6 percent, Norwegian
companies already struggle to fill job vacancies. There were
38,900 people out of work in December.
Women fill 410, or 37 percent, of the 1,117 board seats at
companies listed on the Oslo stock exchange. Thats up from less
than 7 percent in 2002 and twice as many as in Sweden, four times
as many as Denmark and almost seven times the number in Iceland,
according to Marit Hoel, director of Oslo-based Center for
Corporate Diversity, which tracks women in management.
15 Percent in U.S.
In the U.S., women hold about 15 percent of board seats at
the 500 biggest companies, according to New York-based Catalyst,
an organization tracking women in business.
Media coverage has added to pressure on companies to add
female representation. Norwegian newspapers have published lists
of companies that have yet to name the required number of women to
their board. As 2007 progressed, the lists grew ever shorter.
Hoel says companies will be wary of facing criticism by the
media for being the only ones left without enough women.
“They can choose to be the last man standing, but everybody
else has chosen to sit down at the table with women, she says.
Norway was the first independent country in Europe to allow
female political candidates when it introduced universal suffrage
in 1913. The boardroom quota mirrors the composition of Gro Harlem
Brundtlands cabinet two decades ago, which Norways first female
prime minister said was a “culture shock at the time.
Brundtland Effect
Brundtland, now 68, named women to eight of her 18 cabinet
posts when she took office a second time in 1986.
Her decision has led to women having more of a say in hiring
and firing executives and corporate strategy two decades later.
Women from teachers and nurses to engineers and economists are now
advertising their services to companies.
And then theres the money. Sitting on the board of one of
the largest companies pays about 200,000 kroner ($37,000) a year,
Hoel says.
“The law is idiotic the way it is now, says Per Arnfinn
Solberg, an employee representative on the board of Orkla ASA, a
Norwegian company with products spanning cookies to silicon
alloys. “Its an artificial process.
For Petersen, who also runs her own investment business, a
female touch in corporate Norway can only be a good thing.
“Norwegian women have a strong sense of determination,
says Petersen, cramming in a two-minute phone call on her way to
the next meeting. “We have stamina and perseverance. I could have
had at least twice as many board positions as I have now.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Vibeke Laroi in Oslo at
