ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the making and circulation of gender quotas for corporate boards, a gender-equality policy innovation adopted by Norway’s parliament in 2003. Corporate quotas quickly attracted considerable international attention and have since circulated to a number of European countries. The diffusion of corporate quotas has not led to straightforward copying of the Norwegian regulations, though, as the adopted policies have varying rules for gender composition, implementation, and sanctions. A Nordic model for the spread of corporate quotas could not be identified. The chapter ends with reflection on why an inherently controversial measure such as corporate quotas has become a central gender-equality policy reform, attracting considerable attention on the policy agendas of nation states and on the European Union level throughout the 2000s.
