Press Release: Gender Balance: Business schools are crucial to getting more women into top jobs

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has met with leaders of Europe's business schools to discuss how to improve the gender balance in company boardrooms by encouraging more young women to follow a career in business.

Despite around 60% of university graduates being female, women still represent only 12% of board members in Europe's biggest listed companies and only 3% of board presidents. Business schools play a crucial role in equipping young women for a career in business and helping them to reach the top.

They are helping women to prepare for professional careers through seminars, training programmes and providing networking opportunities. Their initiatives follow Vice-President Reding's call to companies to pledge to voluntarily increase the number of women on corporate boards to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020.

European Commission: Speech/11/604: Viviane Reding: Investing in tomorrow’s boardrooms http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/604&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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