Diffusing Equality without Domestic Gender Champions? Incremental Change and Window-dressing in Croatia and Serbia

Initiatives toward promoting gender equality on corporate boards in Croatia and Serbia are at best described as being a symbolic effort with little follow-through or impact on the deep-seated gender biases in the corporate world. Moreover, there has been little evidence of inclusive policy empowerment in implementation, and few domestic gender champions have come forward in the process. Instead of country-based champions, it has been more international actors that put corporate equality on the agenda through international financial assistance and norm diffusion. If the external influence has enabled the spread of new ideas across stakeholders in the business sector, these ideas have struggled to materialize on the ground. Corporate board reform efforts in both countries have remained piecemeal and uncoordinated. Calls for gender equality in the corporate world have not become any more salient and have failed to lead to any implementation of large-scale initiatives for promoting equality on boards of public and private companies.