Women Reach Record 31% of Management Teams in Finnish Companies

• Women representation in the management of Finnish listed companies is at an all-time high at 31%
• News of the update was released by the Finland Chamber of Commerce
• The number of female CEOs dropped by two from the previous year

More women than ever are currently holding places on the management teams of Finnish publicly traded corporations, with 31 percent of the management team slots being filled by women, according to data released on Tuesday by the Finland Chamber of Commerce.

However, the number of women taking up the position of chief executive officer reduced by two from the previous year.

Today, there are 11 female CEOs from the companies listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, contributing eight percent to the total number of the chief executive officers in the listed companies.

The level of women in business management decreased slightly, down one percentage point to 16 per cent. According to Ville Kajala, a senior adviser at Finland Chamber of Commerce, "Even though there are setbacks in all these areas, overall progress is positive."

In both large and medium-listed companies, the percentage of women on management levels has been observed to increase to 33 per cent. This indicates an increase of three percentage points for medium companies and one percentage point for large companies.

Ville observed that the process of recruiting candidates at both the senior and middle management levels has an important function to play in determining the future distribution of the genders, including those at the board level.

A proposal under the Corporate Governance Code would be implemented next June, requiring an equitable mix of both genders on the boards of firms that are listed on the stock market.

The Chamber further reported that the percentage of women on the boards of large publicly listed companies reached 40 percent for the first time last summer.