The proportion of Nasdaq Stockholm companies with women CEOs has increased for the first time to more than 10%, according to Stockholm-based AP2's annual Female Representation index, published Tuesday.
The proportion of women in top executive positions has increased to 24.3% in 2020 up from 24% a year earlier, AP2 found. The index covered 336 companies.
However, the study also found that the proportion of women on the boards of these companies was down for the first time since 2013. Women constituted 33.7% of boards on average in 2020, down from 34% of boards a year earlier.
"I hope that this is just one notch in the curve and that the upturn we have seen since 2013 regarding the proportion of woman on the boards continues. But it is also an alarm clock for all nomination committees that the work on diversity must continue to be actively prioritized. However, it is gratifying to see that the proportion of women in executive positions continues to increase steadily, since this is the main recruitment base for board members," Eva Halvarsson, CEO of AP2, said in a news release.
"It is interesting to once again note that the nominating committees with women correlate favourably with boards with a higher proportion of women, while boards without nominating committees have a lower proportion of female board members than other companies," she added.
Large-cap companies had a female representation on their boards of 40.3%, excluding all CEOs.
The 381.3 billion Swedish kroner ($40.8 billion) pension fund has conducted the study on an annual basis since 2003.
