Incredible 1%!

Just received a mail naming that the number of female managers had increased of 1% in Sweden from 26 to 27% . The change is from 23 to 24% for medium to large companies. Well, a little step is still a step forward! However the article (Wombri, 2008) reminds us that a few years ago the rate was of 34%.... In listed companies, the rate of females in Board increased from 12.4 to 13.5%...

What happened? Have females disappeared? Or is this that a great conjuncture push companies to "trust" males again at their top, when the current low conjuncture tend to bring back the ladies at the deciding organs?

The top of the hierarchy changes slower than the middle level. Therefore the increaseed number of women at this middle-management increasing all the time. Males placed at top position change less often role/position , which tends as well to stop female to access those level (what will happen with the generation 1940 retiring???) Will this support the career development opportunities of women, or will it maintain the current status quo, despite of the measures taken (especially in Sweden)?

We'll see...