4. Gender Diversity on Boards of Directors in Slovenia: Impending Legislation to Establish Quotas

As a very successful country in terms of gender equality, Slovenia presents an interesting case to those studying trends of gender equality at senior levels of the economy. In spite of the country’s strong record on equality and emancipation of women, the Slovenian labor market is still gender-segregated, unpaid domestic and care work are highly feminized and decision-making positions are still dominated by men. Although there is already some legislative regulation for public companies as well as other “soft” measures aimed at more balanced gender representation at managerial and directorial levels of business, the proportion of women in top positions has remained very moderate, with only 10 percent of women among the chairs and CEOs, 24 percent among board members and 29 percent among employees’ representatives on the boards of the 20 largest publicly listed companies in 2016. Our analysis shows that there is considerable potential for the next step that is needed to improve gender equality at decision-making levels in the Slovenian economy. It remains to be seen whether this potential is strong enough to motivate political and social change. Legislation is being prepared that will establish gender-based quotas for corporate boards.