In Norway, 40 per cent of board members must be women, while Finland enforces softer director quotas. Each of these countries offers generous day care benefits. Parental-leave laws are designed to distribute child-raising responsibilities between mum and dad. But none of Norway's 32 large-cap companies is run by a woman, suggesting there is no correlation between having several female directors in the boardroom and hiring a woman CEO. As of 2013, women made up 41 per cent of the boards at Norway's public companies, compared with 18 per cent at private limited companies. But 5.8 per cent of general managers at publicly listed companies were women as of 2013, compared with 15.1 per cent at private companies.
The Finns have also struggled despite having the most women on company boards in all of the EU. But none of Finland's 27 biggest companies has a woman at the helm. "You often hear the argument that more women on a company board will automatically lead to more women executives," said Leena Linnainmaa, deputy chief executive of Finland Chamber of Commerce. "But this has no significance what so ever.” Many Nordic women find: if there should be quota introduced anywhere, it should be in the recruitment, at entry level, so that there are more women to choose from when filling a management position. Sofia Falk, founder of Wiminvest, which coaches other companies in attracting female talent, said the incentive structure needs to change. "Women, unlike men, include children when planning their careers," she said. Instead of offering more money or a company car, she said, the type of management incentives needed are an assistant or private child care, grocery shopping, shared management positions or technical solutions to be able to work from home. When Swedish truck maker Scania aimed at becoming an employer of high-potential women, their HR experts needed to look at something as simple as the way the company advertises job openings. By making sure all available management jobs are advertised and not just handed to the next person in line, by running ads for longer periods of time and using words like "design" instead of "construction", Scania says it sees more women applying to available positions.