Definition: the indicator measures the proportion of women in senior management in the largest companies listed on the stock exchange. Listed means that the company's shares are traded on the stock exchange. The members in senior management are all the members of the highest decision-making body of each company (namely the chairman, non-executive directors, senior managers and employee representatives, if any). The data comes from Eurostat on the basis of the gender statistics database of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

Goal: the proportion of women in senior management in the largest listed companies must increase to 50%.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 5.5: "Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life".

The Federal Long-Term Strategic Vision for Sustainable Development includes objective 1: "Women and men will enjoy their rights equally. They will be able to contribute to all aspects of the development of society and to the improvement of living conditions without distinction, exclusion or restriction on the grounds of sex” (Belgian Official Gazette, 08/10/2013).

In Belgium, legislation has been in force since 28 July 2011 requiring at least one-third of the members of the board of directors to be of the opposite sex to the other members (Belgian Official Gazette, 2011). The European Parliament formally adopted the new EU directive on gender balance on boards of directors in 2022. By 2026, companies should have 40% of the under-represented gender among non-executive directors or 33% among all directors (Directive (EU) 2022/2381).

International comparison: at European level (EU27), there is also an upward trend for the share of women, from 8.2% in 2003 to 33.8% in 2023. Until 2013, this share was higher in the EU than in Belgium, since then it has been reversed. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group that performs best in 2023. In that year, France ranked first with 46.1% and Cyprus last with 8.2%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to indicator 5.5.2 - Proportion of women in managerial positions.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • Belgian Official Gazette: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/welcome.pl; research on http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/doc/rech_f.htm (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • Official Journal of the European Union: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/oj/direct-access.html?locale=nen (consulted on 24/09/2020).

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