In the wake of legislation enacted in various other countries – in particular, within Europe – Italian Law no. 120 of 12 July 2011 – entitled "Amendments to the consolidated law on financial intermediation, pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998", published in the Official Gazette no. 174 of 28 July 2011 and which entered into force on 12 August 2011 (“Law no. 120/2011”) – introduced into Italian law certain provisions to ensure greater equality between the sexes in the governing bodies of listed companies and unlisted companies under the control of governmental entities (commonly referred to as “quotas for women”).
Detailed information regarding Law no. 120/2011 is available by consulting the compendium of laws published here. For these purposes, it is worth noting that, since Law no. 120/2011, the proportion of women in governing bodies of the relevant companies has significantly increased: at the end of June 2014, more than 22.2% of members of such boards were women (against 11.6% at the end of 2012), whilst 220 companies have at least one woman on their board (against 169 at the end of 2012) (data extracted from CONSOB's "2014 Report on corporate governance of Italian listed companies" of December 2014). According to the same report, women hold primarily non-executive directorships: in 64% of cases, they have been appointed as independent directors, whilst only 3.1% of managing directors/CEOs are women.
With the intention of facilitating the selection by companies of the most-qualified female candidates and, at the same time, giving greater visibility to those women, in 2012 ASLA launched "Women On Board", selecting from amongst female lawyers in ASLA law firms those individuals who, by qualification, experience and leadership qualities, are able to fulfil the complex requirements of a position on a governing body.
The CVs of the relevant lawyers, who were selected on a purely meritocratic basis, are available here.
Women on Board has the sole aim of assisting with the selection of the best female candidates for governing bodies: ASLA has no direct interest in the companies to which the participating lawyers will be appointed.
