In 2018, women made up 33.5% of boards of directors in enterprises employing 50 or more persons. This is the first time the proportion of women as board members of large companies has exceeded one third. For comparison, women were 12.7% of boards of directors in 2007 and 9.5% in 1999. The data comes from Statistics Iceland.
The proportion of women as members of boards of directors in enterprises with fewer than 50 persons employed was 25.9% in 2018. Percentages of men vs. women as board members of smaller enterprises have shown little change over the last few years.
At the end of 2018, women were 26.2% of chairmen and members of Boards of Directors in Icelandic enterprises overall. The proportion of women in Boards of Directors ranged from 21.3% to 22.3% between 1999 and 2006, increased to 25.5% in 2014, and has remained around 26% for the past four years.
The Parliament of Iceland passed legislation in 2010 stating that in three-member boards of companies with over 50 employees, at least one member was required to be female. The legislation also states that proportions of board members in medium and large enterprises should not be below 40% for either gender.
