Normalizing the Controversy: Gender Quotas on Corporate Boards in Norway

In 2003 the Norwegian Parliament passed what was at this point in time an astonishing and quite unique piece of legislation. Across the political spectrum, a large majority of parliamentarians voted in favour of a mandatory parity scheme for the boards of both public and private sector businesses. In this paper we discuss the creation of gender quotas for corporate boards as a strictly contained policy innovation where the regulation has clear boundaries, strong enforcement mechanisms and yet few ripple effects. We outline the legacy: how the corporate quota regulation is tied to the use of other quota measures in Norwegian gender equality policy since the early 1980s and to the 1970s industrial democracy policies requiring employee representation on the boards of large companies. We highlight how the implementation of the regulation has been carried through relying only on the threat – not the actual use – of harsh sanctions. Finally we investigate changes in stakeholder attitudes to corporate quotas and - more largely - the problem of vertical segregation over the past fifteen years.