Norway shatters the glass ceiling - but will it promote women's cause?

First Norway, now France. The long arm of the law is feeling its way into boardrooms across Europe as governments come to the rescue of women denied senior company roles because of their sex.

Norway is two months into a new regime that could see public companies broken up for failing to hit government-imposed quotas for the number of females on their boards by the end of next year.

Women must hold 40 per cent of boardroom positions in groups listed on the Oslo bourse by the end of 2007 or the company will have delist, the Norwegian government decreed on 1 January. "I do not want to wait another 20 or 30 years for men with enough intelligence to finally appoint women," Karita Bekkemellem, the Norwegian equality minister, said.

Last month, the French government took a similar step to improve the lot of the country's businesswomen by imposing a similar 20 per cent target by 2011. Meanwhile, Spanish politicians are working on a draft bill to ban sex discrimination at work. The sound of glass ceilings cracking is echoing across the Continent.

This noise is resonating badly in Norwegian business circles. The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), which represents 16,000 companies, has criticised the legislation. Sigrun Vaageng, the executive director in charge of labour issues, said: "We didn't want the legislation. It is the right of a company's owners to decide on the most competent candidate for the boardroom, be it man or woman, not the state." Companies have attacked the proposed punishment as disproportionate to the crime, she added.

The NHO estimates Norway's 500 listed blue chips will have to conjure up 600 women to meet the designated quotas. A recent survey of company bosses found a majority felt there was already lack of suitable candidates. Of the 400 or so names on the NHO's database, a quarter have already been offered management or board positions.

The legislative upheaval continues a long tradition of gender equality in Norway, which has a population of 4.5 million. Two decades ago the country introduced a 40 per cent female quota for all public committees, finally hitting that target in 1997. One-third of its MPs are women, as are nine of its 19 cabinet ministers. Government-owned companies, or those that are part state-owned, such as Statoil, moved quickly to comply with the impending legislation when it first hit the agenda in 1999. Today about half of the oil titan's board members are female.

Ms Vaageng thinks Norwegian bosses will eventually come round to the new laws. "The vigorous debate when the law was passed in November 2003 is calming down. Companies are saying, 'This is Norway. This is the law. We have to adapt'." Some of the country's most high-profile companies, such as Aker, the industrial powerhouse, have moved to comply.

So where does this leave Britain? This year we have had a warning from the Equal Opportunities Commission that it will take 40 years for women to have the same sway in FTSE 100 companies as men. The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for greater opportunities for women, has predicted it will take twice as long - 80 years - for women to close the full-time pay gap with men. Yet the Government's Women and Work Commission rejected the need for mandatory pay reviews last month. Is legislation the answer?

Baroness Howe, a veteran of the City of London who has sat on the boards of Kingfisher and Legal & General among others, said: "The boardroom is so disgraceful and still so low [in terms of female executives] that it may be time for something a bit more positive to happen. Women bring a huge amount of experience to company boardrooms and the sooner boards wake up and see that the better. We need a blitz."

Not so, thinks Laura D'Andrea Tyson, an ex-adviser to the former US president Bill Clinton who was charged by the Department of Trade and Industry with investigating the issue of diversity. The dean of the London Business School said: "Firms should be encouraged to search affirmatively but there is a difference between an affirmative search and quotas. I'm worried about a regulatory solution because it undermines the capability of firms to do a rigorous search process for the best director. It also undermines the position of women who are placed as a result of that."

Her views are echoed by any number of diversity experts, leading City executives and even headhunters. Ffion Hague, the wife of the former Conservative leader who works for the recruitment consultancy Hanson Green, said: "I wouldn't go down that [the legislative] route because we haven't lost the argument yet for appointment on merit. We've got a great pool of potential women candidates if people just stop the lazy tendency of looking at the same circle of people for their appointments."

One solution that is reaping rewards is a mentoring scheme that seeks to bypass the traditional "old boys networks" that still dominate City life. The scheme, set up by a consortium that spans industry, academia and government, Women Directors on Boards, seeks to create a bond between the predominantly male bosses at the top of FTSE 100 companies and women holding lesser roles in other blue-chip firms. HSBC, AstraZeneca and Scottish Power are among those that have signed up. The recent appointment of Jo Dawson to the board of the banking heavyweight HBOS shows the scheme is working, according to one of its champions.

While the statistics may look depressing - only 11 per cent of FTSE 100 company directors are women - many high-flying female executives see chinks of light. "It's drip, drip, drip as opposed to a waterfall," Dean Tyson says of the process to improve female boardroom representation. But she adds: "There is no doubt that firms are very actively seeking female talent." The quarter or so of MBA candidates that are female at the London Business School can look forward to some serious wooing by prospective employers on graduation, apparently.

Once ensconced in the workplace, companies are making it easier for women to leave when nature calls - and, crucially, to return. Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank, is among those firms keen to ease new mums back into more senior roles than have traditionally been on offer after maternity leave is up.

Sam Clark, the UK head of inclusion at Accenture, the consultancy, said: "We are starting to see leading-edge companies get their act together in a more institutionalised way." Research by Accenture into the concept of the glass ceiling, released today, finds it is society rather than corporations that is prejudiced towards women's advancement.

Which suggests Britain is a long way off following Norway's legislative example. As Peninah Thomson, the co-author of A Woman's Place is in the Boardroom, with Jacey Graham, puts it: "The combination of Government exhortation and the example set by our captains of industry in the FTSE 100 is proving to be an efficient stimulus for change. We don't need the heavy hand of the State intervening."

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