Six listed companies still have no women on their boards

Parity in listed Spanish companies is about to arrive. In 2023, the presence of women on the boards of directors of these companies increased to 34.49%. Parity is noted at 40%. If this continues, this will be achieved in 2026. Despite this positive news, there are still six listed companies that do not have women on their boards. Berkeley Energia, Borges, Nextil, Nyesa, Pescanova and Urbas These are the six companies with only men on the board of directors.

These women-less companies are repeating the previous year, meaning it’s not that they’ve lost members due to board cuts. Nuria Chinchilla, the Carmina Roca and Rafael Picha-Aguilera Chair in Women and Leadership, explains that this happens “because they are all men, friends with each other, who believe that they are doing well and that they don’t need change. “In addition, he points out that “It’s a very masculine vision of reality.” In fact, she adds, presidents who put more women on their boards “realized that doubts were resolved more quickly because women asked more questions.”

The future parity law, currently before Parliament, sets out an obligation to guarantee the presence of at least 40% of the less represented gender in the country’s political, constitutional, administrative and business spheres. The law, which was originally scheduled to take effect in June of this year, imposes penalties on companies that do not reach that 40%.

Nuria Chinchilla opposes parity laws and the introduction of quotas for women because, according to her, women may be appointed to a position who have not been trained and prepared for the position, but rather as a figure who complies with the law. In fact, he explained during the presentation XII Report “Women in Ibex 35 Boards” and VII X-ray of the entire continuous market, Research by Atrevia and IESE Business School found that focusing on and showcasing the positive aspects of diversity on the board is the best way to improve data.

Given this statement, Nuria Chinchiglia and ATREVIA Spain CEO Asuncion Soriano noted how the data has changed since the report was prepared. Capricorn 35 only needs one woman to reach this 40% parity (it was 39.82% in 2023). If all listed companies are taken into account, the shortage of women increases to 64. “You can’t have a data revolution, we need an evolution,” explains Chinchilla. In 2015, the first year of the report, women’s presence was only 15%.

In addition, they also highlighted that in the Ibex 35, “the majority of companies exceeded or reached parity.” One company, Cellnex Telecom, has more women – 53.85%; 4 companies (Aena, Inditex, Logista and Redeia), which own 50%. If you go to the continuous market, Libertas 7, Linea Directa and Realia will exceed this 50%. There are currently 40 listed companies with women at or above 40% of their boards of directors: 21 owned by IBEX 35 and 19 owned by the rest of the group, an increase of 8 women compared to last year.

There were 17 female directors registered during the year, which is a positive figure but lower than in the previous 2 years (39 female directors registered in 2022 and 21 in 2021). Of the new directors, 13 are from IBEX 35 companies and 4 are from those listed on the rest of the continuous market.

Despite the large number of women on boards of directors, Ibex 35 has only four female presidents: Banco Santander, Cellnex, Inditex and Redeia. Ana Patricia Botín remains the sole executive president of the constituency, which has been the case since 2018, when Dia left Ibex 35, then led by Ana Maria Llopis, and Rosa Maria García resigned as president of Siemens Gamesa.

Beatriz Corredor repeats as non-executive president of Redeia, formerly Red Eléctrica, and Marta Ortega as president, also non-executive, of Inditex, a position she took up in 2022, replacing Pablo Isla. however, we found 8 female presidents. Esther Alcocer Koplowitz of the FCC; Lucia Komengue Valencia from Prima; Adriana Dominguez Gonzalez of Adolfo Dominguez, the only executive president on the list; Saul Daurella, CocaCola Europacific Partners; Isabel Reig Lopez of Laboratorio Reig Jofre and Helena Revoredo Delvecchio of Prosegur; and Agnès Borel Lemonnier from Libertas 7.

Unresolved issue, executive committee

The report highlights several unresolved issues that listed companies have. One is that six companies have a woman on their board of directors, another is that the number of female presidents is increasing; In the third, they are worst off, since in the executive committees where decisions are made, Women make up only 21.83% of the total.

When the executive committee is headed by a woman, as is the case with Redeya with Beatriz Corredor or Santander with Patricia BotinCompanies tend to hold more positions on both boards of directors and executive committees.

Only one company, Aena, has more women than men on its executive committee. In addition, only one company, Bankinter, has the same number of women and men on its executive committee.