AP2 warned today that the gradual shift towards gender equality on listed company boards in Sweden – an important governance issue for the national pensions buffer fund – is now losing momentum, according to new figures it collated.
In the latest annual Female Representation Index report from the SEK475bn (€43.5bn) fund, the proportion of women on the boards of Swedish listed companies has levelled off below an official threshold for gender-balanced representation, amid a significant fall in the share of women among newly elected board members.
At the same time, women’s representation in executive management teams continued to increase, the Gothenburg-based buffer fund said.
The 2026 index showed women accounting for 35.8% of board members at Swedish listed companies, down from 36.5% last year, although women made up 29.6 of executive management – the highest level recorded since AP2 began the index in 2002.
The buffer fund said the decline was particularly clear among newly elected board members, with only 27.4% of the total 252 newly elected members being female – markedly fewer than in recent years.
Eva Halvarsson, AP2’s chief executive officer, said: “Developments on boards have, in practice, stalled. At the same time, executive management teams continue to become more gender balanced.”
“This shows that the competence exists, but that it is not yet fully reflected in boardrooms,” added Halvarsson, who is due to retire this year.
Åsa Norman, AP2’s head of communications and sustainability, told IPE that diversity – including gender representation as one key dimension – was an important governance issue in the fund’s view.
“Boards and leadership teams that reflect diversity in skills, experience and perspective tend to make more balanced decisions and exercise stronger governance,” she said.
Earlier this year, AP2 and one of its Stockholm-based peers, AP3, said it was “regrettable” that Ericsson, one of Sweden’s largest listed companies, had decided to remove gender diversity targets from its executive remuneration programme, with AP3 saying it had raised the question directly with the telecoms firm’s board.
AP2’s 2026 Female Representation Index shows the number of companies meeting the threshold for gender-balanced representation – defined as neither gender accounting for less than 40% – has fallen to 44.0% of companies, down two percentage points from the 2025 figure.
The Swedish Code of Corporate Governance says companies should pursue equal gender distribution on boards, and the Swedish Corporate Governance Board communicated a target in 2015 of at least 40% for the least represented gender, according to AP2.
