Balance in Advisory Boards: The Use of Quota's to Regulate Advisory Councils in the EU

Countries with corporatistic decision making and active feminist movements early identified behind the scenes decision-making bodies as both crucial gatekeepers and easily maleable venues for a quick fix of gender balance. Given that many of these bodies were appointed by the state, these boards and public committees seemed to offer the opportunity to quickly change the gender balance in decision-making, while the political and electoral sectors were changing slowly. Countries such as Belgium and Norway had adapted legal composition rules by 2005.  To what extent has the increasing integration of Europe led to adaption of regulations of publically appointed advisory boards and commissions in other EU member states? This area is understudied and the paper will report on comparative data and measures as well as attempt to review available results on the composition of boards with a view to identifying potential pitfalls  of the use of quotas in other political and cultural contexts such as corporate boards.