The 2012 McKinsey & Company Women Matter report gives a clear picture of the representation of women in companies’ boards.

The outcomes of the research, based on qualitative and quantitative surveys and interviews with senior managers and CEOs of 235 large European companies in eight different countries, shows that even though there is a progress regarding the female representation in the boards or at senior positions in the companies, the change is slow.

If improvement goes at these rates, in 10 years from now women will have less than 20 percent of the seats of boards or executive committees in the European companies.

In countries, which introduced quotas, the percentage of women on corporate boards increased significantly. The changes however are – just like in countries where quotas haven’t been introduced -mainly in the percentage of women on boards, and to a lesser extent in the executive committees.

An important point, is that in order to incorporate more women in their corporate boards, some companies simply increased the number of seats; the number of men therefore has not decreased.

This does not show significant progress in terms of gender balance. It seems like some companies are fulfilling the quotas, rather than show commitment to promoting diversity on boards and in executive committees.

Another important outcome of the study, is that many companies employing many women, have no female CEOs and very few women in the executive committees – this is particularly the case in the media, telecommunications and technology sectors, energy and basic materials and financial services. Companies from sectors such as transport, logistics and consumer goods however employ less women, but one third of them are CEOs and have seats in executive committees.

The study also shows the different key gender diversity issues in different European countries. In the UK and France for example companies are investing a lot in gender diversity, but still have not seen much change. In Germany companies are committed to increase the number of women in senior positions - the number of women in executive committees has increased by 16 %. One of the main gender diversity issues the Netherlands needs to face, is the lack of women in mid-level management positions, while the issue to be addressed by the Czech Republic, is women’s return to work after maternity leave, which lasts up to 3 years.