Minister touts new law on board gender quotas

According to the Sabuni, the there are too few women serving on the boards of companies operated by Sweden’s 290 municipalities.

“They should lead by example,” Sabuni told the Aftonbladet newspaper, adding that the gender balance is better among Sweden’s state-owned company boards.

“The state has done its homework, but the representation of women in local government company boards looks very bad and has not changed much in recent years.”

Sabuni, a member of the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet), explained that the government would like to see a at least a 60-40 gender balance and local government-operated companies are not making the grade.

In order to address the matter, Sabuni, plans to push for legislation that will enforce gender quotas in municipal-run companies.

“There are political voices demanding legislation for the private sector but they are not watching what the state and local authorities are doing on the public’s behalf,” she told Aftonbladet.

The proposal, which will be presented at the party’s congress in October, still needs clarification regarding the implementation of such quotas, but Sabuni nevertheless expects the measure to be adopted by her party.

“Then we have to start the negotiating work with the other parties. There should be an interest to review how equal the municipal-run company boards are,” she said.

Despite her plans to introduce legislation to force gender quotas on local government-run companies, Sabuni does not believe the government should interfere with gender balance of private company boards.