Gender Equality in Boards and Companies Ten Years After the Golfo Mosca Law
Ten years after the introduction of the Golfo-Mosca Law, which imposes increasing quotas of female directors on the boards of listed companies, the objective has been achieved: the number of female directors has risen from around 7% in 2011 to 37% in 2020.
However, the issue of gender parity struggles to make its way onto the agenda of the Boards and into the organizations as a whole. This is the result of a qualitative study conducted by Simona Cuomo and Zenia Simonella of the Diversity, Inclusion and Smart Working Observatory, SDA Bocconi School of Management, in collaboration with Valore D and sponsored by Generali and McKinsey.
The authors interviewed about 140 directors (most of them independent women), CEOs and presidents and some opinion leaders (chosen among journalists and members of important institutions) between June 2020 and February 2021.
Most respondents acknowledge that the Golfo-Mosca law has brought "a breath of fresh air" to bodies often fed by closed networks, disrupting established mechanisms for choosing board members. This renewed process has contributed to changing the face of Boards of Directors, despite the fact that the pool of women who have had access to boards is still limited and that, also for this latter reason, interlocking phenomena similar to those of male directors have been triggered.
The research shows that the contribution of women has been important in enriching the activities of the BoD in terms of a greater demand for transparency and in-depth analysis of the information available to the BoD; a strong focus on compliance and regulations; the introduction of new perspectives on problems; a greater ability to harmonize the dynamics of the BoD, defusing situations of conflict. Overall, their contribution was perceived to be more effective in control activities than in organizational and business matters, partly because the women who joined the Boards often came from the liberal professions or the academic world and less frequently from managerial positions.
"The expectation - not necessarily correct - that female directors would bring the topic of diversity and the gender gap to the Boards of Directors has been mostly ignored," comments Barbara Falcomer, General Manager of Valore D. "This is also reported by the InTheBoardroom Alumnae, many of whom now sit on Boards of Directors. Commitment to the gender gap and diversity strategy in general has been sporadic and individual. That's why we've been working for some time to prepare women and men - indispensable allies - on the strategic importance for companies of dealing with diversity & inclusion as a critical factor for business growth and sustainability."
From the study we learn that in the cases in which the topic of diversity & inclusion has been brought to the board, this has happened thank to work in the endoconsiliar committees, dialogue with management and using the tools already available to the Board to address the issue at the level of the overall organization. Another point of reflection also emerges: some interviewees pointed out that pressure on these topics from the female board members was infrequent; the motivation is mainly linked to the widespread belief that gender equality is an operational, managerial issue, dealt with by the CEO together with the HR Director. There is still a lack of awareness that human capital policies are an integral part of corporate strategy and a critical success factor.
"Therefore, despite the fact that there are several places and tools within the board's activity that can stimulate the debate, in these ten years of implementation of the law the topic does not seem to have fully entered the agenda of the boards. As a result, it does not seem to have created the transmission belt between boards and organizations that could have more effectively promoted gender equality at all organizational levels. According to the people interviewed, it is the pressure from institutional investors on ESG (Environment, Social Governance) issues that will give the decisive push for companies to address gender equality as a strategic theme," concludes Simona Cuomo.