ABSTRACT
For many years concerns have been voiced about the relative absence of women from the most senior positions in the business world. Some countries have taken proactive steps through their national governments and the regulators of their financial markets to set quotas on the appointment of women to boards of directors of publicly listed companies. In Europe, there is plenty of potential among the female population. Women have represented a substantial proportion of the total workforce in many European countries over many decades. Female CEOs in America were most likely to be found in the retail, food production and service, and gas and electric utilities sectors. By the end of the 20th century, women had broken through in the workplace to a point where they had parity with men in numerical terms in many large corporations in developed countries such as the United States.
