EXPERTS THINK it is communism’s egalitarian tradition what explains why there are much more women in top managerial positions in Eastern Europe than in any other region in the world. In those countries it comes as no surprise to see a woman leading a company. The same logic may explain why a former public company - Red Eléctrica, where SEPI state-owned holding still controls a 20% share – includes more women on its board than any other company in Spain, according to data from CNMV’s [stocks market regulator] and companies’ annual reports: five out of eleven directorate members.
THE FIRM MANAGING the grid is alone when it comes to complying with the Gender Equality Law and Brussels’ demands of at least 40% of female directors by 2020. Apart from Red Eléctrica, only a few organizations comply with CNMV’s corporate governance recommendations, which indicate that boards of listed companies should include “at least” 30% women in five years’ time. These would be FCC, Iberdrola, Grifols, OHL and Bankinter. [Two companies have been excluded for the analysis: ArcelorMittal, not settled in Spain, and Aena, unlisted until April 2015].
HOWEVER, not every former public monopoly honours its origins: Telefónica –one female director among 17 men - is at the bottom of the list regarding equality, only above Técnicas Reunidas, which has no women on its board. The company did not answer any request on this issue. Until this year, Gas Natural and Sacyr were also in the black list together with Técnicas Reunidas, but they appointed two and one woman, respectively. Another former public company, Repsol, includes only one female board member out of 16. Half the companies considered in this analysis have less than 20% women in their committees. One in four businesses does not even reach 10%.
Source: CNMV and companies' Annual Reports
ACCORDING TO the female directors’ typology, only two out of 82 were executive and both belong to the financial sector: Santander’s Ana Patricia Botín and Bankinter’s María Dolores Dancausa. In 2012 and 2013 Eva Castillo from Telefónica was also part of this short list, but she became external director in 2014.
BETWEEN 2012 AND 2015, the number of female proprietary board members has increased, but their proportion has been reduced. They are now 17 against 16 in 2012, which means that they account for 21% of total directors versus 26% three years ago. However, most of women on a board (72%) are independent counselors, who reach their positions due to “their high professional qualification, without considering whether they are shareholders or not”, as defined by CNMV.
Shy steps forward
"Técnicas Reunidas, the only company in Ibex with no women on its board, gives no explanation as to why is this so"
DATA REVEAL that the top Spanish companies have speeded up the compliance with gender equality regulations in 2015, when the term to reach at least 40% of female directors expires, even if the law does not include any sanction for those not complying. Two thirds of the firms increased their women’s share. Abertis leads here: women on its board went up to four from just one in 2012, a 300% rise in four years. Grifols, IAG and Mapfre tripled the female presence in their committee from just one three years ago, while OHL, Endesa and Gas Natural doubled it. The two latest had no women in 2012, which clearly shows that these spectacular rises in female directors’ share are only the statistical effects of their insufficient presence on companies’ boards.
INDEED, women’s total number grew 32% between 2012 and 2015, from 62 to 82, but at the same time the global share of board members decreased in 5 percentage points, which means that the proportional rise in female presence is also biased upwards. Nonetheless, the general trend is that of a gradual increase, even if one in each five companies did not modify the ratio of female directors and the same number reduced it: Repsol, for instance, axed their number by 50%, from two to just one.
Vague non-sanction regulations
COMPANIES CAN easily skip uncomfortable questions, though. The 2007 Gender Equality Law only mentions that “corporations legally bound to file non-abbreviated accounts [large companies] shall include in their Board of Directors a number of women that allows them to reach a balanced presence [at least 40%] of women and men in eight years up from the moment when this law is in force” (art. 75). The regulation says nothing about what may happen to those not complying with it by 2015. There are no sanctions, so the text is more of a recommendation than a legal obligation.
"In Spain, no law requires a minimum women's share on boards"
SOMETHING SIMILAR can be said of CNMV’s - Spanish stocks market regulator – Corporate Governance Code, which is only a set of guidelines to be voluntarily followed by listed companies. The one in force until February 2015 claimed for an “adequate gender diversity”, not equality, in boards. “Not profiting from the potential enterprise talent of 51% of the population –women-, cannot be economically rational among our country’s large companies”, reads the text. It then included a recommendation for the Appointments Committee to monitor the selection processes to verify that there were no “implicit biases”, in the case of those companies where the number of women were “meagre or zero”. The document did not clarify what “meagre” meant for the regulator. The new code approved in February 2015 does mention that the selection policies must “favour knowledge, experiences and gender diversity” and “promote the goal to reach at least 30% female directors in each board by 2020”.
Golden skirts
THERE ARE 82 women holding a position in a board of directors in one of Spain’s Ibex companies, but they are not 82 different persons: some of them amass more than one seat and are therefore called “golden skirts”. This phenomenon reflects the lack of real diversity in companies’ top jobs. Norwegian banker Mai-Lill Ibsen has the record here: she held 185 different board positions at the same time (she explained the number by pointing to the fact that most of the seats came as a result of one single position in a big charitable umbrella organisation). There is no such a case in Spain, but some names can be found repeatedly on Ibex’s boards.
"Helena Revoredo holds seats in three companies"
HELENA REVOREDO is queen here. Prosegur’s chairwoman and main shareholder after her husband and founder of the company passed away, Revoredo holds a seat as independent director in Banco Popular, Endesa y Mediaset (she is the only woman in the two latest). According to Forbes magazine, she is the eighth richest person in Spain.
OTHER FIVE women alternate between two corporations: Eva Castillo, Rosa María García, Catalina Miñarro, Isabel Tocino and Belén Villalonga. Castillo, 53, counsels both Telefónica, where she has occupied top positions, and Bankia. Rosa María García, former Microsoft’s CEO in Spain, is now Siemens main executive and holds a seat in Bankinter and Acerinox boards, being the only woman in the latter. State attorney Catalina Miñarro turned into the first woman to enter Mapfre’s board of directors in 2014. She also holds a seat in ACS’s committee. Former Popular Party’s minister Isabel Tocino, who left politics more than a decade ago, devotes her time to Santander and Enagás, where she seats as an independent counselor. In 2014, Tocino received €547.000 gross in total from both companies. Belén Villalonga, Ph.D. in Management, holds seats in Acciona and Grifols.