Although women constitute the majority of workers in the German financial sector, they are still vastly underrepresented in the top management of financial institutions. Not even the period of extensive managerial changes following the economic crisis in Germany gave women the chance to enter financial institutions' boards in greater numbers. These are findings of the Passed Over for Promotions: Women Still Severely underrepresented on Boards Financial Sector study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).
According to the study, the proportion of women on executive boards was as low in 2011 as in the previous years. It reached 3.2% in the 100 largest German banks and 3.6% in the 59 insurance companies surveyed. That means that the number of women on boards in banks has increased by 1.5% since 2006, i.e. by 0.14% a year.
The situation was a little better on supervisory boards. Women represented 16.6% of the supervisory boards' members of banks and 13.1% of the supervisory boards' members of insurance companies. It is a result of the so-called principle of co-decision which applies in supervisory boards according to the German law. According to the principle, supervisory boards should defend workers' interests next to the owners' interests. 70.9% of women on the supervisory boards of banks and 94.7% of women on the supervisory boards of insurance companies were named to their positions as representatives of employees.
The high percentage of men on boards of German financial institutions is a result of persisting "male monocultures", the study concludes. It is therefore necessary to focus on opening corporate cultures to women, if they should get on boards. The future leadership positions for promising young women can only be provided by a clear timetable and a plan for its consistent implementation in a company.
The whole study is available for download on the German Institute for Economic Research website here.
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