Holland moves towards female executive quotas

Companies will need to ensure that at least three in ten boardroom-level executives are female under new rules being put forward in Holland.

Designed to boost gender equality at the top level of business, the proposals being put before the country's parliament by the ruling Christian Democrats and Labour (PvdA) coalition would affect only those companies employing 250 people or more.

While supporters of the move have yet to outline in detail how it would be implemented and in what timeframe, the Dutch parliament is due to be told that employers who fail to meet the set quota for executive recruitment should be required to draw up improvement plans, against which their performances can be monitored, Dutch News has reported.

The initiative comes on the back of research carried out by Erasmus University, which found that around two in three of the companies listed on the Dutch stock exchange have no women employed at board level.

Earlier this month, the British government reported that studies carried out by its Equalities Office in partnership with the Cranfield University School of Management found that women are being hampered from reaching the top levels of business due to "persistent and unconscious bias" in executive recruitment processes.