Original story from The International News, 15.1.11

France’s parliament gave final approval on Thursday to a law forcing large companies to reserve at least 40 percent of their boardroom positions for women within six years.

The legislation, backed by both President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party and the opposition Socialists, will apply to some 2,000 companies in France which are either listed, have more than 500 employees or revenues over 50 million euros.

France has some women in senior economic positions including Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of nuclear group Areva, and Economy Minister Christine Lagarde (see WVoN story about her).

But overall, female representation at boardroom level is low. According to a parliamentary report, women made up only 15 percent of the board members of companies on the blue chip CAC 40 index last year.

Hello UK, anybody listening?