The first law that the Sánchez Government sends to Congress is a “declaration of intentions”, according to the government’s spokeswoman, Pilar Alegría. It is the law of equal representation of women and men in decision-making bodies to guarantee parity both in politics and in administration and companies, and which extends the scope to constitutional bodies and bodies of constitutional relevance.
This text was already approved last May, but it lapsed with the 23-J elections. Now, the Sánchez Government has put the text in the hands of Equality, with a socialist minister (Ana Redondo), while a few months ago it had put it under the direction of the Minister of Economy. Another statement of intent.
“Meritocracy without parity is not possible”, indicated Redondo, before explaining that the rule transposes the directive of the European Parliament and the Council of November 23, 2022 regarding a better gender balance among the administrators of listed companies , although Spain goes further and incorporates the objectives of parity and balanced participation, ensuring that people of each sex do not exceed 60% or are less than 40% in constitutional bodies and of constitutional relevance, such as the Court Constitutional, the Council of State, the Fiscal Council, the Court of Auditors and the General Council of the Judiciary.
The rule seeks to guarantee the effective representation of women in the political sphere. For this reason, it modifies the electoral legislation in order to establish the mandatoryness of the so-called zippered lists (candidates integrated by people of one and the other sex ordered in an alternative way) in the elections of members of the Congress, Senate, European Parliament, assemblies regions, municipalities, island councils and island councils. The Electoral Board will ensure its compliance.
It also transfers to the highest executive body of the State, the Council of Ministers, the principle of balanced representation and will be applied to appoint the holders of vice-presidencies and ministries.
In the field of State administration, the superior and managerial bodies (for example, the secretaries of State, the undersecretaries and the general directorates) of each ministry must also incorporate this principle in the next five years.
In addition, it incorporates this principle of balanced representation (the 60-40) in different areas of civil society, especially business. Currently, according to Equality, the presence of women on the boards of directors of listed companies in Spain stands at 29.3% (357 female directors out of 1,220), and is limited to 19.6% in the case of senior management (senior executive councilors excluded).
With the new rule, the boards of directors of listed companies and public interest entities that have more than 250 employees and a turnover of more than 50 million euros must have a composition in accordance with the beginning of the 60-40. To achieve this, they will have to adapt the selection processes and, in the event of a tie between candidates, they will have to choose the one of the less represented sex. They have until June 2026.
In both types of companies, the obligation is established to ensure that senior management also complies with this principle and it will be necessary to detail in the report what the situation is on the matter.
It will apply from June 30, 2024 for the 35 companies with the highest market capitalization value and from June 30, 2025 for those listed with a market capitalization of more than 500 million euros. The compliance period for companies with less market capitalization will be until the end of June 2026.
The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) will ensure compliance with the obligations of equal representation in listed companies. Failure to comply with the rule will mean incurring a serious infraction that will result in fines up to the suspension of the quotation.
According to Redondo, the parity law is “fair, efficient and ambitious” to be able to break the glass ceilings and to “remove cultural masculinity”, which is a “huge problem in Spanish society”.
