Stockholm  - A 2005 Norwegian law requiring women to comprise at least 40 percent of board members in Norwegian companies has boosted the country's share of women executives to the highest in Scandinavia, a new survey said Thursday.

According to the study by the Oslo-based Nordic Gender Institute (NIKK), Norway tops the list of Scandinavian countries with 36 per cent female board members at both Norwegian-listed and foreign companies.

Research director Kirsti Niskanen of the Oslo-based NIKK told the Goteborgs-Posten newspaper that Norway had a strong tradition of quotas, but said that legislation was not necessarily the right solution in other countries.

Still, Niskanen said the law had influenced thinking in other countries such as Sweden. "The discussion about quotas has spread," she said.

In 2000 the five Nordic countries averaged 5 per cent female board members. Since then the number has gone up some, but not much.

Today, the number stands at 7 per cent in Iceland, 10 per cent in Denmark, 13 in Finland, and 19 in Sweden.

In Norway, the number has risen from 19 per cent in 2004.

In the public sector, Nordic countries had a more balanced 40-60 female-male split in their national parliaments.

The Finnish government, with 60 per cent women, led the list of gender equality in Scandinavian governments.(dpa)