Women in leadership at Kvadrat

The fifth goal of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. As part of that goal, the UN recognises that we must “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.” Kvadrat believes in supporting and investing in women in leadership positions because inclusive leadership ensures equal access to resources and power, challenges preconceived gender stereotypes, and in terms of business, research shows that companies with more women on their boards perform significantly better.

As a company founded in Denmark, within our two boards and total number of employees, we follow the recommendations of the Danish Act of Gender Equality, which is a regulatory requirement for companies in Denmark. It states that gender equality is achieved when there is a gender distribution of 40/60% for either gender (so men or women can be 10% overrepresented to allow a certain level of flexibility in response to the labour market). At the moment, it is only legally required that a company reports the gender diversity of its Board of Directors and Senior Management levels. By setting a target of 50/50 target for gender equality in all management levels by 2025, Kvadrat goes beyond the regulation.

In 2022, we grew the share of women in middle management to 44%, an increase of 3% from 2021. We also improved the gender distribution of our Kvadrat A/S Board from 20% in 2021 to 33%. The short-term goal for 2023 is to maintain this balance, and by 2025 we want to ensure that our management team (including middle and senior management) is equally represented by men and women. We are working towards our female leadership target by reducing gender biases in the hiring process of new employees and by limiting structural biases that hinder equal career progression such as the unequal absence attributed to parental leave. By continuing to encourage women in leadership roles, we will also build role models and mentors for the next generations at Kvadrat.