European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

European Institute for Gender Equality, Gedimino pr. 16, LT-01103 Vilnius, Lithuania

EIGE.SEC@eige.europa.eu

+370 5 215 7444

20/11/2024

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) Gender Statistics Database collects data on the numbers of women and men in key decision-making positions across a number of different life domains in order to provide reliable statistics that can be used to monitor the current situation and trends through time.

The domains covered include politics, public administration, judiciary, business and finance, social partners and NGOs, environment, media, science and research, sports, transport, COVID-19, and EU funding. The decision-making positions covered are specific to each area of decision-making and are described in detail in the section on statistical concepts and definitions.

Data on largest listed companies cover the decision-making positions of highest ranked nationally registered constituents (max. 50) of the blue-chip index of the national stock exchange in each country (where relevant).

The women and men in decision-making (WMID) data are organised into life domains and then by types of organisation and the different decision-making positions within the hierarchy of each organisational type. The domains covered are:

• Politics
• Public administration
• Judiciary
• Business and finance
• Social partners and NGOs
• Environment
• Media
• Science and research
• Sports
• Transport
• COVID-19
• EU funding

Details of the organisations and positions covered are provided in the section on statistical concepts and definitions.

Not applicable.

General definitions:

A decision-making position is a position from which it is possible to take or influence a decision:

• within a domain: at organisational level. This restricts coverage to organisations having a major influence in the domain at the territorial level of interest, which is usually national but can also be international, European, regional or local.
• within an organisation: at hierarchical level. This restricts coverage to positions within the hierarchy that have a major input to decision-making within the organisation.

Largest listed companies

Organisations covered:

• Largest listed companies: the largest publicly listed companies in each country. Publicly listed means that the shares of the company are traded on the stock exchange. The "largest" companies are taken to be the members (max.50) of the primary blue-chip index, which is an index maintained by the stock exchange covering the largest companies by market capitalisation and/or market trades. Only companies which are registered in the country concerned (according to the ISIN code) are counted. Therefore, the number of companies covered by the data (which is shown in the table of data) may be lower than the number of constituents in the relevant blue-chip index.

Positions covered:

Board members:

• President: chairperson of the highest decision-making body in each company.
• Board members: data cover all members of the highest decision-making body in each company (i.e. chairperson, non-executive directors, senior executives and employee representatives, where present).

Executives and non-executives:

• Executives: senior executives in the two highest decision-making bodies in each company.
• Non-executives: non-executive members of the two highest decision-making bodies in each company. Employee representatives participating in the highest decision-making board are included in the count of non-executive members.
• CEOs: Chief Executive Officer or equivalent position.

Mapping tables:

• Largest publicly listed companies

Notes:

• The highest decision-making body is usually termed the supervisory board (in case of a two- tier governance system) or the board of directors (in a unitary system).
• The two highest decision-making bodies are usually referred to as the supervisory board and the management board (in case of a two-tier governance system) and the board of directors and executive/management committee (in a unitary system).
• Any individual who sits in both decision-making bodies of a particular company is counted only once.
• There are two main stock exchanges in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo Stock Exchange (SASE) and Banja Luka Stock Exchange (BLSE). The BTAX index (managed by Vienna Stock Exchange) includes 6 companies with largest market capitalisation and liquidity selected from the main index of SASE (SASX-10) and BLSE (BIRS). WMID data cover BTAX (6 constituents) and 4 other companies with highest market capitalisation selected from the combined list of SASX-10 and BIRS.
• Non-national companies (i.e. those registered in another country according to the ISIN code) are excluded so that the data for each country cover only the companies registered in that country.

The statistical unit in WMID data is the organisational unit as defined by each specific topic (e.g. a house of parliament or a large listed company). Data are then collected on the numbers of men and women occupying decision-making positions within that unit.

Data cover all persons occupying specified positions in the organisational units covered (see statistical concepts and definitions).

The WMID data cover the 27 EU Member States, United Kingdom, six EU candidate countries (including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye), one potential candidate (Kosovo⁽*⁾) and the remaining three EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

There is no stock exchange in Liechtenstein and Kosovo and the Albanian Stock exchange has no listed companies. Therefore, data on largest listed companies are collected for 35 countries covered by the WMID data.

⁽*⁾ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

Data on board members of largest listed companies were first collected in 2003B2 for 25 countries. Data for CEOs, executive and non-executive members were first collected in 2012B2 for 33 countries.

The geographic coverage has expanded through time so for the countries listed below the time series starts in the period indicated:

• Czechia: 2004B2
• Malta: 2004B2
• Poland: 2004B2
• Lithuania: 2005B2
• Türkiye: 2005B2
• Croatia: 2007B2
• North Macedonia: 2008B2
• Serbia: 2008B2
• Montenegro: 2015B1
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2018B2

Not applicable.

No legal acts are applicable. The Council of the European Union has committed to ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and as part of this commitment the European Commission has been collecting data on decision-making since 2003, a task that has been taken over by EIGE since 2017.

The WMID database was managed by the European Commission until end 2016 and then transferred to EIGE.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Generally, data are disseminated within one month of the data collection (see section on reference period). Data are published on the EIGE Gender Statistics database

Not applicable.

Data are disseminated to all types of users simultaneously via the EIGE Gender Statistics database.

No regular news release.

From 2017, EIGE will publish regular bulletins on gender statistics, which may cover data on decision-making. The European Commission's Annual Report on Equality usually includes a section on this topic.

EIGE Gender Statistics database

Micro-data are not made available.

WMID data are the primary source of information for indicators to monitor the implementation of Area G of the Beijing Platform for Action.

WMID Methodological report

Not applicable.

WMID data are collected either directly from the organisations covered or from umbrella organisations providing data on behalf of member organisations. The majority of data are collected from the websites or other publications produced by the organisations concerned but some are also collected from direct contacts. There are three main risks in the data collection: ensuring the right decision-making bodies and positions are identified; ensuring that the gender of the people in these positions is correctly recorded; and ensuring that the information is up-to-date.

The data are collected by a team of experienced researchers and are subject to routine validation that includes:

• cross-checking of data relating to at least 10% of organisations covered (randomly selected) by another researcher;
• verification of data with the organisation concerned;
• comparison of data with previous periods and review in case of significant change.

WMID data need to be viewed bearing in mind the inherent diversity of institutional and organisational structures and in the scope of decision-making responsibilities for nominally similar positions. In this sense, there will always be some limitations to the extent to which data can be considered as fully comparable between countries. That being said, the data are considered to be of good quality, collected from reliable sources and with careful application of a common methodology. The data are complete (data are available for all relevant positions in each organisation covered) in the vast majority of cases.

WMID data are the primary source of information for indicators to monitor the implementation of Area G (Power and decision-making) of the Beijing Platform for Action. The data are therefore widely used by the European Commission (DG JUST) and the European Institute for Gender Equality for analysis in this area and for reporting to the Council of the European Union.

The data are also widely used by researchers in this area.

No user satisfaction surveys are carried out.

The completeness of WMID data depends on the extent to which the organisations covered openly publish, or are willing to share, information about their key decision-making personnel. In general, there is increasing pressure on organisations of all types to be completely transparent about their organisational structure and operational practices so that completeness of the data has improved through time.

Data are mostly complete from 2008. Companies are contacted where publicly available information is not sufficient to ensure completeness of data.

Data for the six EU candidate countries and one potential candidate (i.e., IPA beneficiaries) were not collected in 2024.

In principle, the WMID data accurately describe the situation for the area of decision-making concerned, though in some areas the coverage of organisations is restricted in order to limit the cost burden and this could potentially impact on overall accuracy.

In the case of largest listed companies, data for individual companies are mostly sourced from company websites but when information is not available it is sought from stock exchange sites. Sometimes information on the decision-making positions are not readily available and have to be retrieved from annual reports, which may not be up-to-date. Apart from this point, data can be considered fully accurate.

Data cover only publicly listed companies that fulfil the selection criteria; i.e. national companies which are constituents of blue-chip indices (see section 3.4 for more details). This implies data might not be fully representative of the whole spectrum of publicly listed companies in each country, but rather it presents the situation in companies with the most economic influence at the national level.

Not applicable.

Data are released within one month of collection.

Punctuality is 100%.

WMID data are considered comparable between countries but it is necessary to bear in mind the different institutional settings that exist and the fact that decision-making structures vary between organisations within countries as well as between countries. There are, therefore, inherent differences between countries in the way that decision-making is organised but the WMID methodology aims to allow for such variation so that the organisations and positions covered in each country are as comparable as possible.

In the case of largest listed companies, the differences in corporate governance systems in place across and within countries should be considered. The count of executives is not always exactly comparable between countries i.e. in a two-tier governance model, the second tier is usually made up of executives while in a unitary system, where possible, executives are counted from the most senior nominated executive body. See below the list of countries by the governance system generally found.

• One-tier: IE, EL, ES, IT, CY, LU, MT, FI, SE, UK, TR, IS, NO
• Two-tier: CZ, DK, DE, EE, LV, AT, PL, SK, BA
• Mixed: BE, BG, FR, HR, LT, HU, NL, PT, RO, SI, ME, MK, RS

Moreover, the coverage of companies is not exactly comparable for every country as the number of companies is neither the same for all countries nor strictly proportional to the country size. The constituents of the blue-chip index of the national stock exchange in each country are covered (max. 50). In cases where the blue- chip index does not cover enough companies (i.e. less than 10), companies with the next largest market capitalisation are taken into account when possible to have a sample of at least 10 companies in each country.

Notes:

• The number of companies covered in the following countries did not reach the minimum sample of 10 as a smaller number of companies were listed and active in the stock exchange:
  • SK: 7 companies covered in 2022B1-B2, 8 in 2023B1, 7 in 2023B2, 9 in 2024B1, 8 in 2024B2.
  • LV: 8 companies covered in 2023B2-2024B1, 7 in 2024B2.
  • RS: 9 companies covered in 2023B2.

In general, WMID data are comparable through time in each area of decision-making. Nevertheless, it is necessary to bear in mind that the organisations covered and the decision-making structures within these may vary through time (e.g. government ministries may be reorganised following a change of government, and the constituents of the blue-chip indices used to define the sample of large listed companies are updated by the responsible stock exchange on a regular basis).

Comparability over time of the data on largest listed companies is affected by two types of changes in coverage (i.e. organisations covered):

• Methodological reviews: From 2003-2006 the database covered the 50 largest listed companies in each country. In 2007, the approach was changed to focus only on companies that are constituents of the main blue-chip index in each country. This change was implemented to avoid giving undue weight to companies that were actually relatively small, particularly in smaller countries where relatively few companies are listed. The methodology was also changed to ensure that only nationally registered companies were taken into account – previously companies with dual listings could be counted in both countries. In practice, the change may have caused some minor effect on the time-series at national level (particularly for countries with small sample size) but the aggregate EU level figure is considered to be consistent despite the reduced sample. From 2008, the rule of a minimum of 10 companies per country was applied to reduce discrepancies due to sample size. From April 2024, for companies with a co-CEO system, all are counted. Previously, only one individual was counted for these cases, favouring the woman co-CEO. In practice, this has a minor impact at the national level and the EU level figure given the small number of cases.

• Regular update: For each data collection period, the list of constituents of the blue-chip index is taken from the appropriate national stock exchange at the start of the collection (the frequency with which indices are revised varies between countries). It should be noted that changes in the composition of blue-chip index may have an impact on figures at the national level, particularly in countries where the index has a small number of components.

There are also changes in the main blue-chip index covered over time:

• Denmark: from April 2018, the main blue-chip index changed from OMX Copenhagen 20 to OMX Copenhagen 25, increasing the number of constituents from 20 to 25.
• Germany: from October 2021, the main blue-chip index rebranded from DAX30 to DAX40, increasing the number of constituents from 30 to 40.
• Greece: from April 2013, the main blue-chip index changed from FTSE/ASE 20 to FTSE/ASE 25, increasing the number of constituents from 20 to 25.
• Romania: from October 2014, the main blue-chip index changed from ROTX to BET. The number of constituents remain the same, but it should be noted that the composition may vary over time.
• Slovenia: the following indices are covered in the specified periods:
  • 2007-2009: SBI20 (20 constituents)
  • 2010-2011: LJSE70 (top 20 companies with highest market capitalisation)
  • From 2012: SBITOP + other companies with highest market capitalisation (total of 20 companies covered).
• Iceland: the following indices are covered in the specified periods:
  • 2007-2008: OMX Iceland 15 (15 constituents)
  • 2009-2013: OMX Iceland 6 + 4 companies with largest market capitalisation (10 constituents)
  • From April 2014: OMX Iceland All-Shares (OMXIGI), increasing number of companies (varies over time).
• Türkiye: following consultation with contacts from the stock exchange in 2019B2, the main blue-chip index was changed from BIST 50 to BIST 30; the latter covers the list of companies with the largest market capitalisation and trade value.

In terms of positions covered, in 2016, as a result of a methodological review process, the bodies covered for some of companies in Hungary were modified, so that the board of directors was taken as the highest decision-making body (previously, some companies had supervisory bodies but this was deemed to be a body with no full decision-making powers after the whole assessment). The review also looked at other elements such as positions covered and who are counted as senior executives (e.g. secretaries of boards), which resulted in minor changes.

In general, there are few other sources of data on decision-making against which to assess the coherence of WMID data. Some national data exist for selected areas of decision-making but often the methodology is not the same (i.e. the coverage of organisations and/or positions within these varies) so that direct comparison is not possible.

Since 2019, the association European Women on Boards collects data on the number of women and men on leadership positions in largest companies in the EU based on publicly available sources. Data are collected annually and published as part of Gender Diversity Index reports. Thus, the raw data or dataset is not publicly available. In addition, data cover all companies listed in the STOXX Europe 600 index plus some additional companies in national stock exchanges. The coverage does not ensure a minimum number of companies in each country, and there is no data for some EU Member States or countries covered under the EIGE dataset. The latest (2021) data cover companies in only 19 European countries.

As part of the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations compiles data on women and men in managerial positions from national sources (Indicator 5.5.2: Proportion of women in managerial positions). Data are published in the Sustainable Development Goals Database. The positions covered are based on the categories of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) and cover senior and middle management (sub-major groups 11, 12 and 13 in ISCO-08 and sub-major groups 11 and 12 in ISCO-88) and are thus not comparable with the WMID dataset.

Internal coherence of the data (e.g. through time or across countries) is ensured through careful application of the WMID methodology, and routine validation of data.

Revisions to data are infrequent. Occasionally, for example, a response to a request to verify the information collected for a particular organisation is received after the data collection has closed and the results disseminated. If the information leads to a change in the data, then the update is made at the next available opportunity and at the latest within one month.

There is no fixed revision schedule. Any necessary revisions are made on an ad hoc basis.

After clarifications received and data review, the following revisions were made:

• 2016B2: Malta (2013B1-2016B1); Iceland (2016B1); Bulgaria (2016B1)
• 2017B1: Slovakia (2016B2); Germany (2014B2 – 2016B2)
• 2017B2: Estonia (2017B1)
• 2018B1: Romania (2017B2); Sweden (2014B2-2017B2)
• 2018B2: Germany and Luxembourg (2018B1)
• 2019B1: Spain, Italy, Cyprus (2018B2); Greece (2017B2-2018B2)
• 2019B2: Montenegro (2015B1-2019B1); Iceland (2016B1-2019B1); Denmark, Czechia, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Iceland, and Norway (2019B1); Estonia and Lithuania (2018B2-2019B1); Malta (2018B1-2019B1); Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovakia, and United Kingdom (2019B1); France (2017B2-2019B1); Türkiye (2018B2-2019B1); Cyprus (2017B1-2019B1)
• 2020B1: Belgium and France (2019B1-2019B2); Greece (2019B1); Lithuania (2019B2)
• 2020B2: Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Malta, and Lithuania (2020B1)
• 2021B1: Cyprus (2020B1-2020B2); Croatia (2020B2).
• 2021B2: Bulgaria (2021B1)
• 2022B2: Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta (2022B1)
• 2023B1: Estonia, Ireland, and Italy (2022B2); Croatia (2022B1-2022B2); Malta (2021B1-2022B1)
• 2023B2: Czechia (2022B2-2023B1); Estonia (2023B1)
• 2024B1: Cyprus and Bulgaria (2019B1); Iceland (2019B1 and 2023B2); Spain (2019B1-2023B2); Italy (2020B2-2023B2); Greece (2021B1-2023B2); Slovenia (2021B2); Denmark and Ireland (2022B1-2023B2); Czechia, Norway, and Hungary (2023B2).
• 2024B2: Cyprus (2024B1).

The WMID data are a form of administrative data, being derived from the records that organisations keep regarding the personnel occupying key positions within the organisation. In all areas of decision-making, the data cover all organisations within the scope defined by the methodology. In some areas (e.g. national level politics) all relevant organisations/bodies are covered (e.g. parliaments and governments) whilst in others the methodology restricts coverage so that the data effectively represent a sample of all organisations within the broad type of organisation (e.g. data on decision-making in large companies are restricted to the nationally registered constituents of the main blue-chip index for the country).

Biannually (since 2012); annually (2003-2011 president, board members, and employee representatives only). Annually for the six EU candidate countries and one potential candidate (i.e., IPA beneficiaries) in 2022-2023 (October collection).

Direct collection of data from official websites (company and stock exchange sites) and contact person in relevant organisations.

See section on quality assurance.

Data collected from individual organisations are aggregated to the national level by position.

EU-27 figures are based on an aggregate of data at national level, with the percentages of men and women calculated from these aggregates. The shares of men and women observed at the EU level are therefore weighted averages rather than an average of the shares at country level.

Figures for IPA beneficiaries are based on an aggregate of data at national level for the six candidate countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, and Türkiye) and one potential candidate (Kosovo).

Different aggregates can also be computed using the pre-defined table. For example, an “EU candidate countries” aggregate can be created by adding data for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, and Türkiye for the relevant position.

Data on the largest listed companies are collected by sector based on Eurostat’s NACE classification. To improve the comparability, data for sectors with a relatively small sample of companies covered are aggregated and published in groups (e.g., C, E & F). Further disaggregated data (by individual sector) can be accessed by downloading a full extract of the dataset or the pre-defined table available for download under Base Information.

Also, when considering data by sector, note that blank cells refer to “not applicable” cases i.e. none of the companies covered for the country in question fall under that particular sector whereas zero values are real zeros.

Not applicable.