Women hold 18% of executive board seats at listed firms
Women are 44% of supervisory board members at the 81 Dutch listed companies, but progress among executives is slow, and the state secretary for equality plans to evaluate the legal quota next year.
Women make up 18% of executive board members and 44% of supervisory board members at the 81 Dutch listed companies, the Female Board Index 2026 shows. The share on executive boards was 17% last year. Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers, professor at TIAS School for Business and Society, compiled the twentieth edition.
Since 1 January 2022, a statutory quota has applied to supervisory boards (raden van commissarissen) of listed companies: at least one third must be women and one third men. This year 71 of the 81 companies meet it. The ten that do not are mostly smaller listed firms, and falling below a third does not automatically mean a company breaks the law. There is no hard quota for executive boards.
Women's share of boards has grown far faster at supervisory level
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Women's share of boards has grown far faster at supervisory level (%). Highest: Supervisory boards, 8; lowest: Executive boards, 2; 2 items. Source: Female Board Index, TIAS School for Business and Society.
View data
| Item | Start of index | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Executive boards | 2 | 18 |
| Supervisory boards | 8 | 44 |
Lückerath-Rovers says the quota did not drive the high share of women supervisors. "It pulled a number of companies over the line, but we reached that 33% before the quota took effect," she says. "That we are now well above it shows that companies are not driven by it."
She finds the lack of progress among executives disappointing. "I have never been in favour of a quota, but this does make the call for a women's quota for executive boards louder," she says. For executive boards the law sets a target figure, which may never be zero and may not fall below the current ratio.
Some companies do well. Twenty-one now have at least one third women on both boards, up from 17 a year earlier. At PostNL, Triodos, Fastned and Hydratec, men and women are equally represented on both boards, and at ABN Amro women are a majority on both.
State secretary Judith Tielen, responsible for equality (Emancipatie), says the number of top women has been rising since the quota arrived, "but it is going slowly. Especially the number of executives is really not growing fast enough. Organisations are leaving opportunities on the table." She will evaluate the statutory quota next year and hold talks with companies, organisations and women about what is needed.
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Female Board Index
The Female Board Index is an annual overview of how many women sit on the executive boards (raad van bestuur) and supervisory boards (raad van commissarissen) of Dutch listed companies, meaning companies whose shares trade on the stock exchange. It is compiled by researchers at TIAS School for Business and is published once a year, so it allows the share of women at the top of these companies to be compared from one year to the next.