Economic Bulletin of April 13, 2012
Top-Level Management in Large Companies: Persistent Male-Dominated Structures Leave Little Room for Women (PDF, 192.69 KB)
By: Elke Holst, Julia Schimeta in: DIW Economic Bulletin 4/2012.
The aim of recruiting more women into top-level management positions in business is attracting increasing interest among the general public and policy-makers alike. Calls for a quota for women and the widely publicized appointment of four women to the executive boards of DAX 30 companies in 2011 still does not detract from the fact that women continue to play a marginal role in the most important economic decision-making processes in Germany's largest companies. Again in 2011, only three percent of executive board members in Germany's top 200 companies were women. In the same year, women held an 11.9 percent share of seats on supervisory boards, and over two-thirds of them were employees' representatives. There has been barely any change in the top 200 companies in comparison with previous years. The proportion of women in high-ranking positions in MDAX and SDAX companies is similarly low.