The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) and the Canadian Embassy on Thursday launched an initiative to set up the globally recognised "30% percent Club" in Croatia, in a bid to encourage greater representation of women on companies’ management and supervisory boards.

The “30 percent Club” has made considerable success in the world, and with this initiative Croatia is joining world leaders, said Victor Dodig, head of the “30 percent Club” in Canada, adding that he would like the Croatian economy to grow stronger.

The club was launched as a campaign in the United Kingdom in 2010 with a goal of achieving a minimum of 30 percent women on FTSE-100 boards. The figure currently stands at about 29 percent, compared to 12.5 percent when the campaign was launched.

The head of HUP, Gordana Deranja, said that women made up only 17 percent of members of the management and supervisory boards of companies whose stocks are included in the Crobex index, while the number of companies who have no women on their boards had increased to as many as 55 percent last year.

Canada’s “30 percent Club” has about 200 members already, which makes it among the strongest in the world.

The Croatian Minister for Economy and Entrepreneurship, Martina Dalic, said that the Croatian government supported this initiative and advocated stronger representation of women in top managerial positions through its activities to achieve a ratio of at least 30 percent on the management boards of companies.

“This initiative effectively underlines the problem of equality, as well as the HUP’s readiness to promote women to management and supervisory boards. The HUP is the most qualified to do this also because it is led by a woman (Gordana Deranja),” Dalic said and called for equal pay for men and women.

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