The principle of gender equality in corporate governance and its guarantees

Abstract

The article is devoted to the theoretical and legal analysis of issues of gender equality in corporate governance and ensuring its guarantees. The attention is focused on the need to consolidate the principle of gender equality in corporate governance of joint-stock companies Ukraine by establishing a minimum quota for women’s representation in company bodies, which would ensure the harmonization of Ukrainian corporate law with the acquis communautaire of the European Union,
Two approaches to ensuring and guaranteeing equal opportunities when elected to corporate management bodies of a business company are analyzed. is organized from official or unofficial recommendations, framework agreements, i.e. in the absence of binding legal norms due to social pressure from interested parties (investors, shareholders, trade unions, customers, media, etc.) consists of official or unofficial recommendations, framework agreements. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are indicated. The second involves setting standards at the level of mandatory standards with the application of quotas and enforcement measures in case of non-compliance. It is emphasized that despite the fact that this method is more stringent, in practice it has proven to be much more effective. The Corporate Governance Code of Ukraine was analyzed in terms of maintaining gender balance, in particular the obligation of the supervisory board to develop a diversity policy that determines how the positive effect of diversity will be achieved in all respects, both for the supervisory board and the executive body.
The article analyzes the positive experience of companies that adhere to the principle of gender equality, emphasizing that an increase in the share of female directors contributes to the formation of such a composition of corporate control bodies that ensures more effective monitoring of the actions of officials of management bodies and control over the resolution of conflicts of interest. It is emphasized that in order to ensure compliance with the principle of gender equality, a system of measures should be provided for to eliminate the risk of non-compliance with the latter, including through a legal mechanism for invalidating decisions on election to the supervisory board that are made in violation of the relevant principle.