Publikationen der Forschungsgruppe Gender Economics

Top Decision-Making Bodies in Large Companies: Gender Quota Shows Initial Impact on Supervisory Boards ; Executive Board Remains a Male Bastion

The gender quota for supervisory boards that has been mandatory since January 2016 has shown an initial impact. According to DIW Berlin’s Women Executives Barometer, at the end of 2016, there were more women on the supervisory boards of the 106 companies subject to the statutory quota than one year before. Their proportion increased by a solid four percentage points to more than 27 percent. And in ...

The Parental Leave Benefit Has Increased Average Household Income for Young Families in the First Year: Six Questions for Katharina Wrohlich

The Parental Leave Benefit: A Key Family Policy Measure, One Decade Later

On January 1, 2017, the parental leave benefit will be celebrating its tenth anniversary. Although its implementation was fervidly debated, it has become a widely accepted family policy measure. Its impact on parental labor supply, the division oflabor between parents, fertility, and indicators that reflect the well-being of parents and children have been examined from a variety of perspectives. A ...

Better Career Opportunities for Women Will Help Lower the Gender Pay Gap: Nine Questions to Elke Holst

Women's Likelihood of Holding a Senior Management Position Is Considerably Lower than Men's - Especially in the Financial Sector

Women remain grossly underrepresented in management positions in Germany. However, what has been dubbed the gender leadership gap, i.e., the difference between the share of all employees who are women and the share of women in senior management positions, varies considerably across different industries. The present report shows that the largest gender gap in the likelihood of holding a senior management ...

Financial Sector: Share of Women on Corporate Boards Increases Slightly but Men Still Call the Shots

In 2015, the share of women in the top decision-making bodies of the financial sector increased once again but men remain in the overwhelming majority and thus continue to call the shots. At the end of 2015, women made up just under eight percent of executive board members of the 100 largest banks in Germany. The corresponding figure for the 59 largest insurance companies was a good nine percent. In ...

Higher Shares of Women on Corporate Boards Still a Long Way Off: Eight Questions to Elke Holst

Corporate Boards of Large Companies: More Momentum Needed for Gender Parity

Germany’s large corporations still have a long way to go before achieving balanced representation of men and women on their boards. At the end of 2015, the share of women on the executive boards of the top 200 companies in Germany was a good six percent, an increase of less than one percentage point over 2014. The share of women on the supervisory boards of these top 200 companies was almost 20 percent ...

I Find the Term "Quota Woman" Unobjective: Eight Questions to Norma Schmitt

Towards a Gender Quota

In 2016, a fixed gender quota will come into force in Germany, affecting the supervisory boards of listed companies that also have employee representation (full codetermination).1 By as early as September 30, 2015, however, all companies will be obliged to set a self-imposed target quota – even companies that meet just one of these criteria; i.e., either listed or subject to codetermination. A variety ...