Gender equality rules for the election of the board of directors in Clust-ER Health

Clust-ER Health is an association recognized and funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region to support the competitiveness of the Health and Wellness Industries.
In 2018-2021 the board of directors had 4 women out of 9 elected members; the decision-making process was participatory and full of constructive discussions.
In 2021-2024, however, only one woman was part of the decision-making committee despite many female representatives ran for the elections. This has resulted in a lack of representation and a loss of opportunities. Since life sciences are the sector in which the presence of women is significant today and few women are actually involved in leadership positions, in 2023 Clust-ER Health decided to review the regulation to guarantee gender equity in decision-making processes. The new regulation for Board's election provides that each member of the cluster expresses a maximum of 4 votes, of which a maximum of 2 for each list according to double gender preference or 2 preferences in the same list only if the votes go to 2 candidates of different gender. It is not possible to cast multiple votes on the same list for candidates of the same gender. Two votes from the same list for candidates of the same gender are not valid. SMEs and startups are main stakeholders and beneficiaries impacted from this practice, as they are strongly involved in the innovation process.Women are usually less indicated as main referent for SMEs and less likely candidate themselves as board members