Only 40% of the New Women Commissioners in Dutch Listed Companies are Dutch

8 September 2012. An article in the Financial Daily (Financiële Dagblad) and other media this weekend quotes the most recent findings of the Dutch Female Board Index: in 2012 one in four of the newly appointed Supervisors- the top management layer in a company - is female. In 2011 only 14.3% of the new appointees were women. Two months ago in this blog, you read that the talent pipeline that should lead to more women in top positions in major Dutch companies is too limited. There are not enough women in the sub-top to be promoted to the top, according to new research by Dutch daily newspaper the Volkskrant.

In 2016 companies by law must have at least 30% women in their top management and supervisory or executive boards. In 2011 the numbers did not increase from the 20% of women at the top in the preceding year. EU commissioner Viviane Reding published this week a concept proposal that will demand that by 2020, 40% of all executive boards of large companies be women. Contrary to the Dutch, who only require companies to publish the percentages and are not sanctioned in any way if they do not meet the 30% mark, Reding is considering several kinds of sanctions, including fines or exclusion from government contracts.

At present, 13.3% of all Supervisors in the 472 companies listed on the Dutch stock exchange are women. Half of these companies have no women on their executive boards.

In July we quoted findings from the Volkskrant that in all, 7592 women work in management positions in the 35 companies in the Volkskrant research. Many work in an international post and are not Dutch nationals. Prof. dr Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers (Nijenrode University) runs the Female Board Index and suggests that the reason more women are being invited onto executive boards has to do with recent changes in how companies see the role of the boards. No longer is 'board experience' a primary motivator - this was what kept the old boys network standing - but specific knowledge is now more valued. Women are expert in 'doing it right' and having specific knowledge.

In my conversations with leading women, and listening to powerful speakers like Claudia Woody of IBM, there is no reason why more Dutch women cannot take their place on the boards of listed companies in the Netherlands. There is no reason why women cannot powerfully claim a career. There is no reason to conform to the very strong ethos in the Netherlands that women should work hard, be nice, and hope that others notice their value. Women do work well. In the conversations women bring up their observation that they are better at keeping to budget than men, they are better at keeping projects within the time limits. And as Claudia Woody says, they are better at sitting behind their computers while men stand at the water fountain and talk with their colleagues about their ideas and ambitions.

Women do not have to change a single thing about themselves. The architecture of the company does however need to change. Value must be put on specific and grounded knowledge. This is the next frontier for women to challenge and succeed at. That, and women being able to find each other, to propose good women when a supervisory position becomes available.

There are a number of organizations and individuals doing very good work to create the change that needs to happen.

One is L-Women at Work. They organize an annual conference about advancing the careers of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women across Europe. They are developing the business case for L-Women in the business environment and, looking at the female commissioners in the Netherlands, lesbians are well represented.  The next conference is in Amsterdam on 9 November 2012.

Hanske Plenge manages a Linked In group entitled vrouwelijke commissarissen en toezichthouders and offers coaching and meetings for women wanting to enter this field. Her workshop "Meer Kijk op Toezicht" (Getting a Good Grip on Supervision) regularly sells out - and she offers them a number of times a year.

De Beuk, organization advisers, offer training for women under their Leading Ladies program.

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Lin McDevitt-Pugh

Lin McDevitt-Pugh is Director of NETSHEILA and is specialized in building network expertise in organizations. In October 2012 she will provide a training for women who want to get into top management layers with organization advice company De Beuk. Call her on +31 6 150 48468 to discuss how your organization can benefit from better networking strategies.

Marissa Mayer and the Business Case for Hiring Pregnant Women

We want to share this article from The Conversation by Diann Rodgers-Healey. It provides an excellent contribution to the discussion on "crippling the pipeline for talent" provoking the stalemate companies face in bringing women to the top.

Marissa Mayer and the business case for hiring pregnant women.

NetSHEila is collaborating on a new publication with Diann Rodgers-Healey. 

Copyright Gon Buurman, Photo from the collection of Aletta, Insitute for Women's History www.aletta.nu

Diversity Waylaid - New Dutch Laws on Boards and Commissions Defeats Purpose

Friday 30 March 2012, Amsterdam. It is afternoon, and the Rode Hoed debate centre is filled with well-dressed, distinguished looking people. They are here to listen to a debate organized by het Nationaal Register[1] on two recent amendments to Dutch law that limit the number of Commissions a person can be a – paid – member of.  I am there because I believe that the more women there are in board rooms and advisory Commissions, the better the chances are of equality between men and women in the work place. I am working with Stichting De Beuk to train women in leadership roles.

At the table are two national politicians, Ewout Irrgang of the Socialist Party (yes, his was the suit that was decidedly the most scruffy, and what WERE his pockets full of?), and Pierre Heijnen of the Labour Party (PvdA), and men (75%) and women (25%) Commissioners. The politicians are authors of two amendments to laws relating to boards and Commissions. The amendments were introduced to maximize both the number of Commissions a person can sit on, and the amount of money they can earn on a Commission. The idea was to break through old-boys networks  (we all know the stories of the interlocking board rooms, where all major companies in a country are run by the same sub-set of men), and to ensure that Commissioners have enough time to fulfill their duties to quality standards.  The amendments address management and supervisory boards of companies with more than 250 employees and public companies that are run on a commercial basis.

The amendments were introduced in response to persistent stories of poor governance in large companies. Everyone in the room can readily recall the ABN-Amro scandal earlier this century (the Supervisory Board was weak and did not intervene when needed) and the latest, the Amarantis scandal (huge Dutch education Moloch in financial dire straits because no one knew what the CEO was doing).  The tensions in the room became clearer as the event progressed. The SP politician denigrated the audience with the generalization “Modesty is not the greatest quality of the current generation of Commissioners”. The PvdA politician admonished the audience to do the work for free, just like the linesmen at the Little League do every Saturday.  The woman sitting to my right and the man to my left were clear: the politicians had no idea what they were talking about. My neighbors were hard working Commissioners, fully committed, who put in extra hours where needed, for little financial reward.

Professor Auke de Bos, of Erasmus University Rotterdam set the scene for the discussion with a few facts. His research shows that in the Netherlands, Commissioners are active in, on average, 3.5 Commissions and that these Commissions require on average 1.5 days per month of their attention. 13% of the men and 3% of the women have more than 5 Commissions. Some 18% of Commissioners are women. Some commercial enterprises offer €100,000 a year, some public institutions offer €5000 a year. On average, a position on a Commissioners is valued at €15,000 a year.

58% of the men acquire their positions via the personal networks – 42% of the women use their networks to acquire positions. 20% of the Commissioners responded to advertisements, and in 12% of the cases an intermediary was used. Women Commissioners are on average 10 years younger than their male counterparts.

In the course of the debate Commissioners pointed out the flaws in thinking behind the amendments. What struck me is that more and more women are choosing to leave their fulltime work while still in their 50’s, opting for a portfolio of Commissions. Drs Margot Scheltema was the financial director of Shell Netherlands when she decided in 2009 to become a full-time Commissioner and supervisor. She holds positions in commercial and cultural organizations. The amendment affects her bank balance in a way she had not anticipated when she left her fulltime position. She feels there are better ways of ensuring diversity – for example by maximizing the number of years a person can sit on a Commission. Drs Catherin van der Werf worked for 20 years as manager, director and CEO of public health organizations before choosing to concentrate on being a Commissioner. For her portfolio of organizations – all acquired via advertisements - she is available whenever needed and she has become an expert in strategic development in diverse social sectors. She can build bridges in ways that busy executives cannot do. She brings value because she is involved in so many organizations.

The amendments to the law will make it imperative for these women to relinquish some of their posts. This leaves me with the question: will the amendments have the opposite effect to their intended outcome? Will the small number of women who have chosen to be professional Commissioners be forced out of office? And did this message come across to the public policy makers - or was the contribution of these women to the debate another example of "Modesty is not the greatest quality of the current generation of Commissioners"?

More reading on the facts: Diversiteit in de raden van bestuur en raden van toezicht in de publieke sector

Lin McDevitt-Pugh

Lin McDevitt-Pugh MBA is a management consultant, project developer and manager in the public sector, private sector and civil society, based in the Netherlands. With a background in human rights and networking, she works with organizations to move the conversation from “This is not how it should be” to “This is how it will be”.

Lin gets very excited when she trains organizations in working with people as creative economic resources.  By mobilizing the resources we all have at our fingertips - the people we know and the people they know - we can create unique knowledge, build trust and access the people and institutions we need to access.
Contact: mcdevitt-pugh@netsheila.com

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[1] Although it sounds like a public institute, het Nationaal Register  (The National Register) is a recruitment and selection agency, and the event was organized to celebrate its 10^th anniversary.