When at INFORMA we set out to carry out the study on "Presence of women in Spanish companies", one of our objectives was to measure the application of the 2007 Equality Law, which established that certain companies should have 40% of women on their Boards of Directors by 2015.

We are now in the fifteenth edition of this study, but the data do not show a very high percentage of compliance with this maxim, which is probably due to the fact that it does not establish the need to impose sanctions in the event of non-compliance.

Female presence on Boards of Directors

Taking into consideration the companies subject to this Equality Law, at present barely 40% of them have at least 40% of female presence in their Boards. These results highlight the ineffectiveness of this Law.

In all the companies analyzed, regardless of whether or not they are required by law, women occupy 24.63 % of the seats on the Board of Directors, while the Chairmanship of this body is held by a woman in 18.25 % of the cases.

However, about 25% of the companies with no legal obligation to comply with the Equality Law have 40% of women on their boards, 67.19% of which have at least one woman in management positions, which seems to show a correlation between the two situations.

Women in Ibex 35 companies

If we analyze companies that arouse greater interest, such as IBEX companies or those with state participation, the situation changes somewhat more rapidly.

Among the companies that make up the IBEX 35 - which aim to reach 40 % of women by 2022 and insist on increasing the number of top managers - the proportion was 31.30 % in 2020. This represents an increase of 28 pp from 3.30 % in 2005.

In the case of the Boards of Directors of companies with state participation, they are composed of women in 30.33 % of the cases, rising from the 25.69 % they reached in 2016.

Positions on Management Committees held by women

In addition to the share of the Boards, we have also analyzed executive positions such as general management, which is occupied by a woman in 14.15% of the companies, as well as management positions, where 20.74% are held by women.

The presence on Management Committees, which can be considered a stepping stone to a position on a Board of Directors, has been improving over the years as it has increased by 10 pp since 2010.

However, 63% of the companies still do not have any female executives in their positions.

The positions with the highest female representation are Human Resources, Advertising, Quality and Marketing.

On the other hand, we find fewer women in general management, technical management and production management.

At INFORMA we will continue to analyze the data and record the progress made in the presence of women in Spanish companies.