I.n the top floors of listed German companies there are now more women than ever before, following strong growth. According to an evaluation by the auditing and consulting company EY, the number of female board members in the 160 companies in the Dax family increased by 20 to 94 top managers. It was the highest value and the strongest increase since the start of the analysis in 2013. In a good half of the companies examined, however, there were no women on the management board as of January 1, 2022. In an international comparison, Germany also lags further behind.
“The German executive bodies are becoming more female, but the change is taking place very slowly. At the moment, on average, a woman faces six men, ”explained EY specialist Markus Heinen. In addition, only nine companies have a manager at the top of the board. However, Heinen assumes that the female quota for board members, which has been in force since August 2021, will significantly increase the proportion of female executives in a short period of time.
Germany is lagging behind internationally
In the case of listed companies with equal co-determination with more than 2000 employees and more than three board members, it must be ensured that at least one woman sits on the board when making new appointments. Other listed or co-determined companies that do not fall under the minimum requirement must justify if they plan their board of directors without women – that is, if they state a “target value zero” in their reports. If this does not happen, there is a risk of fines.
“If we see more and more women at the top of the company in the coming years, it will have an enormous signal effect,” said Heinen confidently. According to EY, the proportion of female executives on the executive board increased by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year to a high of 13.4 percent.
In an international comparison, Germany lags further behind according to a study by the non-profit Allbright Foundation published in October. In the 30 stock market heavyweights in the USA, the proportion of women as of September 1, 2021 was 31.1 percent, followed by Great Britain (27.4 percent) and Sweden (27.1 percent). In Germany, the share of the Dax, which at that time only comprised 30 companies, was around 18 percent. As with digitization, a new departure is needed that will advance the German economy, “and that requires a significantly higher proportion of women on the executive boards,” warned the managing directors of the Allbright Foundation, Wiebke Ankersen and Christian Berg.
Dax companies before M-Dax companies
According to EY, the share of female executives is highest in the top German stock exchange league at 18.1 percent. In around 78 percent of the now 40 DAX companies, at least one woman on the top floor has a say. Only 22 percent of the stock market heavyweights do not have a female board member.
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