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OSLO, Norway, Nov 12, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A proposed law in Norway would give companies there two years to add more female executives or face dissolution.
The law would require 40 percent of boardroom members to be female, an attempt to create more parity between the sexes in Norwegian business.
The BBC reports 20 percent of 590 publicly listed companies in Norway meet that quota right now.
Norwegian Family and Children Minister Karita Bekkemellem said the progress being made now is too slow and has urged the Cabinet of Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg to approve the law.
If businesses don't meet the quota they would be broken up.
Sigrun Vaageng, the head of Norway's employers' association, said the law would force companies to leave the country.
A spokeswoman for Bekkemellem dismissed the claim, calling the lack of women in executive roles "a question of power."
She added, "It is not difficult to find qualified women."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
