Women on Boards: Polish listed companies far from the 33 percent threshold
Large companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange must ensure that the underrepresented sex holds at least one third of seats in their governing bodies. In management boards, women currently occupy roughly one in seven seats.
From 18 August 2026, a law implementing EU Directive 2022/2381, known as Women on Boards, applies in Poland. The underrepresented sex, in practice women, is to hold at least 33 percent of seats in the governing bodies of large listed companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises are exempt from this obligation. The EU transposition deadline passed on 28 December 2024, so Poland introduced the regulations with a delay of more than a year and a half.
Poland chose the option in which the threshold is calculated jointly for the management board and the supervisory board. However, a person of the underrepresented sex must sit on each of these bodies. If candidates have equal qualifications, priority is given to a person from this group. Supervision is exercised by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), and penalties for violations reach PLN 500,000. When signing the law, the President referred it to the Constitutional Tribunal for subsequent review. This does not suspend the application of the regulations.
According to the pulsHR.pl portal, women hold about 15 percent of seats on the management boards and 20 percent on the supervisory boards of listed companies. An analysis by 30% Club Poland for the 140 largest companies (the WIG140 index) shows that at the end of 2025 the figures were 15 percent on management boards, 23.1 percent on supervisory boards and 19.9 percent overall, 1.5 percentage points more than a year earlier. According to this analysis, 256 women are still needed to reach the EU minimum. EY reported in November 2025 that only 12 of the largest companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) meet the directive’s requirements. The differences between the studies result from a different sample and measurement period.
The financial sector is closest to the target, with women accounting for 30.6 percent of the composition of the governing bodies of WIG140 companies. Companies covered by the law must adopt a gender balance policy by the end of the first general meeting after 18 August and report every year on the share of each sex in their governing bodies. The law also introduces transparent criteria for selecting candidates for management boards and supervisory boards.