Ricerc@Sapienza

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a first impact assessment of the Italian quota law in order
to explore whether “gender equality by law” contributes to redefining, albeit in part, consolidating and
establishing positions of power and decision making. The paper analyses these dynamics by focusing on a
specific economic sector, the banking sector. The analysis strives to determine: whether binding quotas are
giving rise to an apparent enforcement by building up new distortionary equilibria (such as new forms of

In recent years, there has been a growing consensus that gender diversity could improve the economic and social performance of companies—although progress has been painfully slow. In Italy, Law n. 120/2011 has required that since 2012 the composition of corporate boards must comprise at least 1/5 women and, from 2015, 1/3 women. Here, our primary aim was to study the proportion and the progression of female directors on the boards of Italian companies over the period between 2009–2014, among a sample of 60 companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.