More women on the boards of directors but still far from parity, the presence of women in traded companies in the Spanish market grew by 2.8% during 2019, with a final number of 300 executives, 32 more than the previous year, 23.1% of the 1,296 members of the on board of directors. This increase, the most positive on recorded to date since 2015, does not bring women closer to executive functioning jobs, and places the market as a whole 7 points from complying with the recommendation from the Good Governance Code from the CNMV of having at least 30% of women executives by 2020.
This can be concluded by the report “Women on the Board of Directors of Traded Companies”, prepared by ATREVIA and IESE and presented this morning at the Madrid Press Association by Asunción Soriano, CEO of ATREVIA Spain, and IESE professor Nuria Chinchilla.
The report which X-rays for the III time the Spanish market completely and adds the VIII Report of Women in IBEX-35 companies, which studies 128 companies, concludes that there are still 348 executives far from reaching parity of 50%, from those 104 on the IBEX and 244 on the rest of public traded companies. In order to reach the 30% recommended by the CNMV, the market would only need 13 women on the IBEX-35 executive boards of companies. Given the growth of the market at the actual rate this % will be reached by 2025.
The report also reveals that currently there are 12 companies on the Spanish market without any women executive, all the IBEX-35 companies have at least one woman executive, except for one company, among those 29 companies only have one woman. This means that still in 2019, 32% of companies of the market had least than 2 women on their highest roles.
As well, another concluding fact is that of the advancement of women in positions of power does not translate to more executive functions, as a matter of fact, only 4% are executive board members, 4.03% in the IBEX-35. In short, the weight of women on board of directors stagnates below a 24% for the third consecutive year, 23.09% in 2019, 23.74% in 2018, 23.66% in 2017.
Average by sectors and companies
By sector, industry and construction materials companies are the most likely to incorporate women on board of directors, they occupy 6% of the positions, followed by consumer goods companies, 4.6%. It is the real estate sector that stands out the least when it comes to incorporating female representation, with only 1.7% of women on boards of directors.
The balance is positive for Asun Soriano,CEO and president of ATREVIA Spain, who has pointed out that “it is hopeful to see that more decisive progress is made towards parity and that we are getting closer to the desired objectives; an outcome like this year’s its encouraging, however, we cannot forget that there is still much to be done”.
Moreover, if the analysis is based on the average of women per company in each sector, the financial sector that ranks above all, like the previous year, it promotes female presence the most, 3.2 women per company, along with the technological and energy sectors, 2.9 women per company, and consumer services, 2.4 women.
The x-ray of the situation is different if we separately analyze the members of IBEX 35 and the remaining 93 companies of the market. There are 124 executives, 27.25% out of a total of 455 members. In the remaining companies of the market there are 175 women, 20.83% out of a total of 840 members. As for the average executive per company, the IBEX-35 has 3.54 while the rest of the market has a 2.19 of women executives.
There are positive exceptions. In the market the non-IBEX market Adolfo Domínguez and Realia for the third consecutive reached absolute parity, joined this year by Aperam, which achieved parity for the first time since the start of this study. Within the IBEX-35, all the companies that make up the market have at least one woman on their boards, 3 companies again have 6 executives, Iberdrola, Santander and Caixabank, and 13 have increased the presence of women. In the market, Endesa, 10%, and Naturgy, 8%, are the furthest from parity
Professor Nuria Chinchilla stressed that, “we are on the right track, if we continue in this line of growth, in a couple more years we will be able to reach the number that we set out to achieve. But we have to keep working so that we really get to that 30% that the CNMV recommends. We cannot lose the good trajectory of the last few years.”
VIII Report of Women in the IBEX-35 companies
The IBEX is once again the locomotive of parity. In the last year, the total number of positions on the IBEX-35 boards held by women amounted to 124, 108 in the previous financial year, advancing the female presence by 3.5 points by not varying the size of the boards, 455 seats.
Among the symptoms of improvement in the market are the 13 companies that have increased the presence of women this year. In contrast to the 8 companies that in 2018 exceeded the 30% recommended by the CNMV by 2020, this year’s report records 6 more that meet this purpose, bringing the total to 14 companies that have reached the desired parity
However, compared to the 8 companies that reached the recommended target of 40% proposed by the CNMV for 2025, this year the number was reduced to 3, 5 less companies that achieve it: Iberdrola (42.9%), REE (41.7%) and Banco Santander (40%).
To continue, the ATREVIA and IESE report highlights that the same 5 executive board members who were listed in 2018 are again part of the 2019 report, Ana Botín (Santander), María Dolores Dancausa (Bankinter), Cristina Ruiz (Indra), María José Garcia Beato (Sabadell) and Vanisha Mittal (ArcelorMittal). As for the presidents of the Board of Directors, Ana Patricia Botín, president of Santander, repeats this year as the only woman CEO of an IBEX-35 company.
As for the independent executive members of the IBEX-35, after 3 years in a row with 5 independent executives who coordinate their boards, the number goes down to 4 dues to Iberdrola, where Inés Macho Stadler is no longer at the company. They remain in office, Catalina Miñarro (ACS), Carmen Gómez Ge Barreda (REE), Ana Palacio (Enagás), and Teresa Garcíá-Milá (Banco Sabadell).
You can consult the Full Report on Women on the Boards of Traded Companies by clicking here
