In 2012, women made up 13.7% of
board positions in large listed companies in the E.U., and 15% for nonexecutive
board positions, according to The Wall Street Journal. In the U.S., according to Kay Koplovitz of USA Network, the
number of women on corporate boards had been stalled at more or less 15 percent
for over ten years. Whereas in the U.S., people would look at Congress to enact
a uniform inter-state standard or else leave the matter to individual
corporations, the E.U. has other alternative means, such as the directive. That
device relies on the state governments to decide on the penalties as well as
enforcement against violators of the E.U. law. Even though the Commission could
take a state refusing to implement a directive to the European Court of
Justice, the “cost” of the flexibility in the state-based implementation is a
possible dilution in the law’s aims being achieved throughout the E.U. rather
than just in a few states. Put another way, even as the ideological diversity
within the empire-scale union is accommodated, advocates of more female
representation on corporate boards may be disappointed as some states give
non-complying companies only a slap on the wrist.
The full essay is at Essays on the E.U. Political Economy, available at Amazon.
