Wanted: 200 Swedish women

Swedish companies are searching for up to 200 women to join their boards, in order to prevent the government introducing positive discrimination legislation next year.

The government has told companies that unless 25% of a board's directors are female it may pass a law to force through the change.

A-P Fonden 2 (AP2), one of the country's national pension funds, launched a female-representation index last year, which showed that women comprised 11.1% of board members in mid-2003, compared with 7.3% in December 2002. There are 1,966 boardroom posts in Sweden, of which 299 are chairman-level.

An AP2 spokesman said: "The trend is positive but still not up to the 25% level. We would, however, prefer that companies boosted female representation voluntarily, rather than through legislation. But companies have to prove they are capable of doing so."

Norway was first to introduce legislation on female directors. From January 1, 40% of the directors of all state-owned companies must be women.

Privately owned companies have until next year to reach the same level or they will be forced by law to do so. Both countries have high female representation of more than 40% in their respective parliaments and believe there is sufficient talent among women for them to take on directorships.

An institutional shareholder said: "Looking at the general state of corporate governance in Sweden, particularly with the Skandia scandal in mind, women and international board members would shake up the old-boy network."

In the UK just 8.3% of directors of the FTSE 100 companies are women, according to Cranfield School of Management's Centre for Women Business Leaders.

There is only one female chief executive among the FTSE 100 - Dame Marjorie Scardino of Pearson - and one female chairman, Baroness Hogg of 3i.