More companies listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange have women in their boardrooms and non-executive boards, according to the latest edition of the Female Board Index, compiled by Tias business school professor Mijntje Luckerath.

The percentage of women on executive boards at the 94 companies studied has risen from 8.5% to 12.5% over the past year, while women now account for almost 30% of supervisory board members.

It is the second year in a row that there has been a significant increase in female representation and Luckerath says she regards this as a breakthrough.

‘Last year, the institutional investors lobby group Eumedion said it was making appointing women a key issue, and I think this has had an effect,’ she told broadcaster NOS. ‘It is slowly becoming embarrassing if a company board only consists of men.’

Insurance company ASR and technology firm Nedap lead the way, with equal numbers of men and women on both boards. However, 16 companies still have no women on either of their boards at all, and 70 of the 94 have no women at top flight management level.

The government is currently working on legislation which would ensure 33% of listed company supervisory boards members are female and 51 of the 94 now meet that criteria. Last year, the figure was just 30.

The research, which also showed the percentage of foreigners is (much) higher among the female directors than male, does not include companies such as Shell and AirFrance KLM, which have dual listings.