Cabinet backs quotas for women in boardrooms

The Swiss cabinet has embraced non-binding quotas for women on company boards and top executive posts at major listed companies, joining a campaign in Europe to dilute the traditional male dominance of senior jobs.  Women should occupy 30% of the seats on boards of directors and 20% of top management jobs, the cabinet said on Friday, adopting guidelines that now will be drafted as legislation to be presented to parliament.  It stopped short of imposing binding quotas used in other European countries. Companies that fail to meet the target would just have to explain themselves and outline plans to comply.  The law could have a significant impact in Switzerland, where few women occupy top posts in leading companies including UBS, Novartis and ABB. Efforts to use purely voluntary targets have largely failed.  The cabinet watered down initial thoughts of having 30% quotas at both board and top management level.  “The situation at executive board level differs from ...