Dutch companies without a female presence on their boards are being publicly named and shamed online.
A website called "Deze mannen kunnen geen vrouw krijgen" – which translates as "these men can’t get a woman" – is listing corporations in the Netherlands that have at least five directors but no women.
The 18 companies, which are mentioned alongside the names and pictures of their senior leadership team, include the dredging giant Boskalis; Accell, owner of bicycle brand Raleigh; and the football club Ajax.
Companies that want to be removed from the website have the option to appoint a female director as soon as possible and email the website creator, according to information on the website.
The data has been taken from the Dutch Female Board Index 2015, which found that women accounted for 21pc of supervisory directors at all 84 listed Dutch companies and 7.8pc of executive boards.
Mijntje Lückerath, professor of corporate governance at TIAS business school, which compiles the index, noted that not one company has met the statutory target of 30pc female representation.
The Netherlands has the seventh highest proportion of female directors in Europe, behind the UK in sixth place.
The Dutch website comes amid growing pressure for companies to address gender imbalance at the highest level as well as pay discrepancies among staff.
Six European companies have better female board representation than the UK In the UK, businesses with more than 250 employees will soon have to reveal details of how much they pay their male and female staff.
From April 2018, the UK Government will publish league tables naming companies that fail to pay women the same as men.
Lara Murray an employment expert with Palmers explained: “Whilst it is important to point out that the UK has no minimum legal quota on women serving on boards, issues relating to the gender gap are nevertheless regularly in the headlines and many forward thinking companies see women on their board as a positive step which signals to employees and customers alike that the organisation takes equal opportunities seriously.”
To understand the issue, the Government commissioned former Standard Chartered chief executive Lord Davies to examine ‘the obstacles that prevent more women from reaching senior positions in business.’
In his first report, he challenged FTSE 100 companies to reach 25 per cent female representation by 2015, a target which was been met.
His final review, published at the end of last year, widened the net to include FTSE 350 companies and increased that suggested target to 33pc by 2020.
Whilst the 21 FTSE 100 companies that had all-male boards in 2011 have voluntarily appointed female directors since then, there are still 15 companies in the FTSE 350 without any women in their boardrooms.”
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