The share of women in the boards of 140 largest companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange increased slightly, only by 0.4 pp, reaching 18.4% by the end of 2024 according to data from 30% Club Poland. Results are particularly disappointing for WIG20 companies, where the share of women in management was 0.8 pp lower than a year ago, at 22.1%. This trend shows a setback for large-cap stocks (blue chips), usually leading in diversity.
In contrast, more promising news comes from the mid-cap companies listed on the mWIG40 index where the share of women in boards increased by 3.5 pp y/y reaching 22%. This rate is almost equivalent to that in the leading blue chips.
The picture is bleakest among small-cap companies (sWIG80 index), where the share of women in management dropped by 0.9 pp to just 14.9%, making it worse than the previous year.
As in previous years, the financial sector led in gender diversity with women constituting 25.5% of management, albeit the figure was down by 1.8 pp. The real estate and the retail sector followed, with women representing 21.2% and 21.1% in boards and supervisory boards respectively. Procinctly disappointing were the agri-food (10.3%), industrial (13.7%), and medical (16.7%) sectors.
There is a significant group of companies among the largest stock exchange listed companies with no women in the board or supervisory board. At the end of 2024, 29 firms (20.7% companies from WIG140) had completely male boards. This statistic was better in previous years – 28 firms had no women in management in 2023 and 23 firms in 2022.
About one-fifth of companies (27) from the surveyed group had at least a 30% share of women in management. This 30% is significant, as according to the theory of the critical mass, to have the voice of the minority heard and influencing the majority, it must constitute at least 30%.
A mere 6 out of 140 firms (4.3%) had a woman as CEO and the number remained unchanged from the previous year. This is a shockingly low rate. Slightly more women led supervisory boards – 16, which is 11.4% of all surveyed firms. The paltry representation of women in these key roles underscores the urgent need for change.
Data reveals that improving the situation in stock exchange companies and increasing the share of women does not necessarily require a huge number of women. Assuming that all 140 companies were covered by the draft amendment to the Act on public offering, a rise in the number of women in boards by 116 and in supervisory boards by 131 would be enough to meet the 33% requirement.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/kobiety-we-wladzach-spolek-gpw-kryterium-30-spelnia-jedynie-1-5-firm-63003
