The cabinet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed on a draft law, which from 2016 onward would establish enforceable quotas for women on supervisory boards of the more than 100 companies with employee representation on their boards.

Under the terms, 30% of the seats would have to be reserved for women.

A further 3,500 medium-sized companies would be required to determine their own quotas for executive and supervisory board seats.

Among the 30 blue-chip companies listed in the DAX stock market index, women occupied only 7% of executive board seats and barely 25% of supervisory board seats by the end of June 2014, according to the economic think-tank DIW.

Among the four chemical companies listed in the DAX, two - BASF and Henkel - have women (one each) on their managing boards. All have at least one female shareholders' representative  on the supervisory board. BASF has one, Bayer two, Henkel and Merck KGaA three each. Representation of women is higher among employee-nominated board members.

In 2003, Norway became the first country in the world to impose a gender quota requiring at least 40% of public limited company supervisory board members to be women. Other countries, including France, Spain and the Netherlands, now have similar requirements.

In Sweden, the new government plans to introduce quotas to bring more women onto company boards if businesses don't act themselves during the next two years.