Denmark wants companies to involve more women in boardrooms and senior management. The government has, however, not decided to use mandatory quotas used in Norway and being considered by the European Union and came up with a new model. The model should bring greater gender equality both in public and private companies. Details of the Danish government's plans in this area were published on the Nordic Labour Journal website.
Two of the three Danish coalition parties have promoted the quotas so far but the government finally decided that it would be better for the companies to choose their own gender equality goals according to their particular situation.
The "Danish model" introduces the duty for all public companies as well as the 1,100 largest private companies to choose their own targets for the number of women on boards and their own policies to boost gender equality at all levels of management. Annual reports of these companies will include a new mandatory part to summarize the state of meeting their goals of gender equality. Failure to publish the information will be fined.
The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) welcomed the government's decision not to introduce quotas and expressed support for the new model. However, DI disagrees with the amount of fines for omitting gender equality policies in annual reports which was set at 5 to 10 thousand Danish kroner (670 to 1350 euros).
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