Pressure to involve more women in top management of German companies is growing both among politicians and general public. Even the growing debate about introducing mandatory quotas for women in the statutory bodies of publicly traded companies has, however, not changed the fact that women play only a marginal role in deciding on the most important economic processes in Germany's largest companies. These are findings of the Top-Level Management in Large Companies: Male-Dominated Persistent Structures Leave Little Room for Women study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).
In 2011, women accounted for only 3% of board members in 200 largest German companies excluding financial sector. 11.9% of women worked in their supervisory boards and two thirds of them were employees' representatives there. In comparison with the previous years, there are almost no changes. Representation of women on boards of the German companies in the MDAX index of small companies and the SDAX index of large companies is similarly low.
Representation of women on boards of the companies in the prestigious DAX 30 index was 3.7% in 2011. Compared to 2010, it was the increase of 1.5%. In companies whose shares are owned by the state, some of which are much smaller, women accounted for 8.2% of board members and 17.7% of members of supervisory boards in 2011.
In comparison to 2010, the largest number of German companies whose board consists only of men increased by 8.8% to 23.6% in 2011. It appears, therefore, that it is still far away for wonem to achieve gender-balanced representation on German boards.
The study is available to download at the German Institute for Economic Research website here.
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