Study: Fewer women on the boards of large companies

Study
Fewer women on the boards of large companies

So far, women in the boardroom of large German companies came in small steps. But it is precisely in the crisis year, the trend reverses. Of justice and Ministry of women see urgent need for action.

Ascent slowed for the First time in years, the proportion of women has decreased in the tope days on a German stock Exchange heavyweights. To Date 1. September 2020 sat in one of the 30 Dax corporations, 23, a Manager on the Board, as from an examination of the non-profit Allbright Foundation is an issue.

A year ago there were still 29. The managing Director of the Foundation, Wiebke Ankersen, and Christian Berg, a German exceptionalism in times of crisis in comparison to other industrialized countries. The SPD Minister of the interior, Christine Lambrecht, and Franziska Giffey criticized the decline is sharp.

“The development is not at risk last the Reputation of the German economy and the competitiveness of the company,” said Federal Minister of justice, Lambrecht. “The study shows once more in all clarity, that we come up with voluntary solutions.” The Federal Minister for women’s Affairs Giffey called for more binding requirements. The Union accusing it of “persistent” resistance against the draft law for more women in Executive boards and Supervisory boards.

Companies of a certain size – usually from 2000 employees – need to post since the beginning of 2016 released at the end of the Supervisory Board with women neubesetzen, up to at least a share of women of 30 percent is reached. Requirements for the staffing of the boards yet. Giffey and Lambrecht had presented a draft law, which is due to resistance in the Union on ice.

The SPD plans that boards of large stock exchange to be occupied by listed companies with more than 2000 employees in the future, in the case of new appointments, with at least one woman, if the management Board has more than three members.

To put “what causes also always members of the Supervisory Board, in the crisis now even more on men on the boards – it is a short-sighted Reflex that shows how little anchored the diversity of perspectives in German companies is tips,” criticized Ankersen.

In an international comparison, the German Stock market heavyweights declined according to the study, more. The proportion of female managers in the Board of Directors declined to 12.8 percent. It is the lowest level since 2017 and the first decline since the first examination in 2016 was. In the USA, the proportion of women, however, rose in the Top floor of a 30-Stock market heavyweights within a year, to 28.6 per cent in Sweden to 24.9 per cent, in the UK at 24.5 per cent, in France, to 22.2, and in Poland at 15.6 percent. The increases ranged between 0.8 per cent (USA) and 2.6 percent (Poland).

“Only when women and men assume and share responsibility, we can have in these challenging times of success,” wrote the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a final word. The Numbers of German companies are in contrast to other European countries, where the positive Trend to stop, and the results are much better turned out.

The second Chairman of the IG Metall, Christiane Benner, called: “The coalition government must now finally take action! The target number “Zero” on the boards of many companies is not a goal, but an indictment.” Only fixed rates guaranteed the necessary changes.

The 160 companies in the stock exchange indices Dax, MDax and SDax are required by law to call a fixed target size for the increase in the proportion of Women in their boards of Directors. You can aspire to but, as a goal of “Zero” women in the Executive Board. 55 of the companies that still have no Manager in the management level, formulated according to the study, the objective of “Zero”. Including four Dax-listed companies are.

According to the study, there was to date eleven Dax companies without a single female Manager in the Board of Directors. A year earlier, only six companies. In all of the 30 Dax-listed corporations, the share of women on the Board, therefore below 30 percent. In only four companies, several of the managers sitting in at the tope of days. To do this, Allianz, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom, and Fresenius Medical Care count. By contrast, 97 percent of U.S. large businesses and 87 percent of French Majors, for example, have at least two women on the Board.

The German-Swedish Allbright Foundation is an advocate for more women and diversity in leadership positions in the economy.

dpa

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