The number of women on executive boards is stagnating, with more than 60 out of 88 of listed companies still not employing a single woman in a top executive role, the latest Female Board Index has shown.

Like last year, just 15% of executive board members are female. Of the 30 new appointments in 2022, only four were women.

The number of women on supervisory boards, a third of whose membership must by law consist of women, did better with 39%, though this number is also unchanged in the last two years.

It was thought that a legal obligation to appoint women would automatically increase the number of women on decision-making executive boards.

That correction has not happened, professor of Corporate Governance Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers, who initiated the annual index, concluded.

“It looks as if the attention for the drive for more women in executive board functions is waning and it no longer has priority,” she told the Volkskrant. “What needs to happen is that companies feel embarrassed to have an all-male executive board,” she said.