At the end of 2003 Norway adopted a rule that boards of public companies must be at least 40% composed of women. So what happened next?

Firstly, Norway has the highest female board representation of any country in the world.

But the quality of corporate governance appears also to have changed. One of the most striking observations recounted in FT analysis is the story of how female directors on Statoil's board asked questions about corruption that led to the resignation of the company's chairman and CEO.

"Women are more willing to ask questions without regard to whether they may be perceived as stupid or awkward questions" explains Grace Reksten Skaugen, one of the country’s most prominent directors, in the article.