Germany: More women join executive boards

As old as the issue of gender equality for women in the professional world may be, it remains so urgent that just recently, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a woman who researches this very topic.

The latest report by the AllBright Foundation, released on Wednesday, provides current insights into the situation of women in leadership positions. The result: there is some progress, but there's still a long way to go.

The Swedish-German nonprofit organization with headquarters in Stockholm and Berlin works to promote more women and diversity in executive business positions. This year's survey found that at least 37% of newly appointed board members were women in the past year.

"And finally, albeit quite late, we've reached a point where there are fewer all-male boards than mixed-gender ones," the two directors of the AllBright Foundation, Wiebke Ankersen and Christian Berg, wrote.

"I'm pleased that an increasing number of German companies are now promoting women to executive positions," said Sven Hagströmer, the initiator of the foundation.

However, Hagströmer, best known as the founder of Avanza Bank and investment company Creades, also said he suspects that companies are mainly trying to get out of public criticism by hiring more female board members. His suspicion was reinforced by the fact that the vast majority of German companies have only one woman on their executive boards.

Almost 83% of board members are men. In the German blue-chip stock index DAX, there are even two companies whose boards consist solely of men: Adidas and Porsche Holding — still an improvement over last year, when there were seven such companies.

What's it like in other countries?

For example, there are more female board members in the United States than Germany. AllBright figures show that women occupy over a third of seats there. When comparing 40 companies from France, the UK, Poland, Sweden, the US and Germany, Germany's businesses rank second to last.

AllBright said that to change "boardroom dynamics" and make a difference in company policy, women must take up at least one-third of board seats. In the US, this is the case for every second company, while in Germany, it's only valid for 28% of the 40 largest enterprises.

Surprisingly, American women are successful despite less favorable conditions than in Germany. There is no legal quota for women on executive boards, let alone paid parental leave and adequate and affordable childcare options. Apart from that, women in the US work less frequently. However, it's usually full-time when they do work, and they are more consistently promoted to leadership positions.

There is no legal quota in the UK either. Still, the business sector has set voluntary targets — with success, as the 350 largest listed companies achieved a 40% female representation on their boards three years earlier than planned. By 2025, they aim to have 40% women in the top two levels of leadership as well.

French women benefit from a legal quota for executive boards, which mandates that by 2026, at least 30% of board members must be women, increasing to 40% by 2029. In supervisory boards, the quota requires at least 40% female membership. Most French women work full-time and utilize state-provided childcare from an early age.

Female stereotypes at work

Germany remains entrenched in traditional gender roles, according to the AllBright report. While many women work, it's often in part-time jobs, making the path to executive positions challenging.

However, women are eager to take on more responsibility in their careers. "Studies show that women are equally striving to obtain leadership positions. It's only that they often hit a 'glass ceiling,'" said economist Marcel Fratzscher, referring to a colloquial term for the social barrier preventing women from being promoted to top jobs in management.

He noted that more German men would wish for equal opportunities for their female partners in the workplace and were willing to assume more family and childcare responsibilities.

That is why the AllBright directors Ankersen and Berg demand a faster and more consistent expansion of daycare centers and all-day schools in Germany. In addition, incentives like tax benefits for married women to work part-time should be abolished, and parental leaves should be more equally split between men and women.

If progress on gender equality in Germany continues at the pace of the past five years, the report said, it will take another 18 years for every second executive position in publicly listed companies to be held by a woman.

This article was originally written in German.

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