Breaking the Boardroom Ceiling: A Study on Gender Balance on the Boards of Swedish Listed Companies on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm

Sammanfattning: Sweden is considered one of the most prominent countries for gender equality, with relatively high levels of female board members at publicly listed companies. However, the EU Law on Gender Balance on Boards implemented in 2022 adds pressure for Sweden to maintain, and improve, gender distribution on boards since Sweden was able to opt out of the law. There is a lack of research on the topic for Sweden at a company level, both in terms of all listed companies but also on differences between sectors Thereby, this thesis investigated to what extent Swedish listed companies have complied with the requirements of the EU law on Gender Balance on Boards between the years 2015-2022, as well as investigated potential differences between sectors. Through a quantitative approach and the usage of secondary data collected from reliable databases, examined in the light of three theoretical frameworks and previous literature, this thesis finds that a majority (67%) of the companies in the sample complied with the EU law in 2022. Additionally, significant differences between sectors were identified, with a majority of the companies within the STEM field having lower levels of female board members than the companies of other fields.