Studies: Women in top echelons of German companies at all-time high
Studies show that there are now more women on the executive floors of listed companies in Germany than at any time in recent years.
According to data from the auditing and consulting firm EY, the number of women managers on the executive boards of companies listed on the DAX rose to 120 in the first half of the year, the highest level since the evaluation began 10 years ago.
The organization Fidar, an abbreviation of the German for Women on Supervisory Boards, came to similar conclusions. However, female executives are still in the minority.
German Minister for Women’s Affairs Lisa Paus still sees a need for action. “The legal requirements have been successful, the fixed quotas for supervisory boards and executive boards are working,” the Green politician said. “But in order to enforce equal participation of women in leadership positions, we have to look at the entire management.”
Fidar evaluated the 160 DAX companies as well as another 20 listed and equally co-determined companies as of May this year.
At 18.3%, the proportion of women managers on the boards of these companies reached a peak since the evaluation began in 2015, up from 14.7% in the previous year. The proportion of women on supervisory boards also rose to a high of 35.3%, up from the previous year’s 33.5%.
According to Fidar, the main drivers are legal regulations. Listed companies and companies with more than 2,000 employees and more than three board members must now ensure that at least one woman is on the board when new appointments are made.
Since the beginning of the year alone, another 15 women managers have been appointed to the executive boards of the 62 companies that are currently subject to the regulation. According to the report, only four of the affected companies do not yet have a female executive on the top floor.
For supervisory boards, a law that has been in force since 2015 prescribes a women’s quota of 30% for the approximately 100 largest listed companies. “Fixed quotas are necessary because voluntary commitments do not work,” argued Fidar founding president Schulz-Strelow.
Fidar President Anja Seng called for an extension of quotas to all co-determined or listed companies. “Our goal must be to have equal representation on all boards in the medium term: supervisory board, executive board and senior management.”
According to the EY study, the proportion of women in the boardrooms of the 160 DAX companies rose to 17% in the first half of the year, up from 13.6% in July 2022. Ten years ago, the figure was 4.7%.
“It is true that we are seeing more and more female top managers making it onto the boards of Germany’s top companies,” said EY expert Ev Bangemann. “But there is still one woman compared to five men on board committees.”
According to the report, around 42% of the 160 corporations do not have a single female executive member.
The highest proportion of women, at some 23%, is in the top echelons of the 40 heavyweights of the DAX according to the data. In the 50 MDAX companies, 16.5% of the board members are female. The lowest proportion of women is on the executive boards of the 70 SDAX companies, at 11.5%.
For the first time, the majority of medium-sized companies listed in the MDAX also have at least one woman on the board, according to the study. In the DAX, this has already been the case since 2016. The smaller companies in the SDAX are still lagging behind.
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