Special Eurobarometer 376 WOMEN IN DECISION-MAKING POSITIONS REPORT

This report addresses Europeans’ opinions on issues associated with gender equality and focuses on gender balance in business leadership. A greater understanding of Europeans’ opinions about women in leadership positions in companies could be of help to policymakers to develop gender balance policies that take into account the level of support such legislation would receive from EU citizens, at EU level as well as national level. The outline of the report is as follows.

• General associations with gender equality
• Equal representation of women and men in positions of responsibility
• How to achieve gender balance on company boards
• Legislation for more balanced representation of women and men on company boards

This survey was conducted by TNS Opinion & Social at the request of the Directorate- General Justice. It was coordinated by the Directorate-General for Communication. It is the result of the special Eurobarometer 376 (EB76.1) held from 3 to 18 September 2011 (fieldwork) and involved 26,856 interviews in all 27 Member States.5 The methodology used is that of the Standard Eurobarometer surveys of the Directorate-General for Communication (“Research and Speechwriting” Unit). A technical note explaining the methodology used in carrying out the interviews is annexed to this report.