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Literature / resource Imported

Gender-Balanced Seats, Equal Power and Greater Gender Equality

Portugal · Coimbra · National · See the Portugal profile · See the Coimbra profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 99% 7/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

AIM: This paper seeks to analyse the potential for change in the gender quota law on corporate boards in Portugal. This is achieved by incorporating concepts and insights drawn from political science and the study of quotas in politics and adjusting these to the boardroom context

Details

Promoter
Sara Falcão Casaca, Susana Ramalho Marques, Maria João Guedes, Cathrien Seierstad — website
Power domain
Political Power, Economic Power
Methods / tools
Competence development, Networking, Benchmarking
Region (NUTS)
PT16
Keywords
gender, women on boards, transformative institutional change, gender mainstreaming

Context

This paper analyses the potential for change in the gender quota law on corporate boards in Portugal, incorporating concepts from political science and the study of quotas in politics, adjusted to the boardroom context.

Objectives

To understand the quota law's potential for eliciting gender balance in the boardroom, greater gender equality in directorship positions, in board dynamics, and at the workplace level.

Activities

Multi-strategy research combining quantitative analysis of survey data with qualitative analysis of interviews undertaken with female and male board members and the contents of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs).

Results

The evidence shows some changes in terms of descriptive representation of women on boards, but fewer changes in relation to substantive equality, as men are still largely over-represented in positions associated with effective power and influence over decision-making. Weaknesses were found in the materialisation of workplace gender-equality commitments through the adoption of GEAPs designed to tackle gendered patterns at the workplace.

Conclusions

The study concludes that while the promotion of gender equality at the workplace is valued by both groups (particularly women), the quota law has produced limited substantive representation and transformative institutional change so far.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Academic research study; no budget specified in the source.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Study duration not specified in the source.
Staffing & skills
Researchers Sara Falção Casaca, Susana Ramalho Marques, Maria João Guedes, Cathrien Seierstad

Conditions for success

  • Multi-strategy research design combining quantitative survey data, qualitative interviews with board members, and analysis of Gender Equality Action Plans

Common failure modes

  • Men remain largely over-represented in positions associated with effective power and decision-making influence despite the quota law
  • Weaknesses found in the materialisation of gender-equality commitments through the adoption of GEAPs

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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