Executive Board and Supervisory Board Members in Germany's Large Corporations Remain Predominantly Male
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Holst, Elke; Kirsch, Anja Article Executive board and supervisory board members in Germany's large corporations remain predominantly male DIW Economic Bulletin Provided in Cooperation with: German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) Suggested Citation: Holst, Elke; Kirsch, Anja (2014) : Executive board and supervisory board members in Germany's large corporations remain predominantly male, DIW Economic Bulletin, ISSN 2192-7219, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin, Vol. 5, Iss. 4, pp. 35-47 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/106808 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu WOMEN EXECUTIVE BAROMETER: COMPANIES Executive Board and Supervisory Board Members in Germany’s Large Corporations Remain Predominantly Male By Elke Holst and Anja Kirsch (FU Berlin) The executive boards of large corporations in Germany continue Since 2006, DIW Berlin has been conducting an annual to be in men’s hands: at the close of 2014, a good five percent of analysis of the representation of women on the executive and management boards (subsequently referred to as ex- executive board members at the top 200 companies in Germany ecutive boards), as well as on the supervisory and admin- were women. This is equivalent to an increase of one percent- istrative boards (subsequently referred to as supervisory age point over 2013, which is evidence of the rather sluggish boards) of Germany’s largest commercial enterprises.1 development in this area. DAX 30 companies recorded the largest The present survey covers the 200 largest companies 2 proportion of female board members at a good seven percent, outside the financial sector. DAX 30, MDAX, SDAX, and TecDAX companies,3 and a further 60 companies while the lowest share was recorded for MDAX companies (less with government-owned shares were also included. than three percent). The representation of women on supervisory boards was better: at the end of 2014, a good 18 percent of board The second article in this issue of Economic Bulletin anal- members were women in the top 200 companies; DAX 30 compa- yses the representation of women on corporate boards in the financial sector based on an analysis of Germa- nies displayed above-average results for female board members at ny’s 100 largest banks and 60 largest insurance compa- just below 25 percent. At a little under 14 percent, SDAX compa- nies, drawing comparisons between banks of different nies displayed not only the lowest percentage of women, but also legal forms.4 Taken together, the two reports provide an the lowest increase over 2013 (0.6 percentage points). Both on overview of female representation on the highest deci- sion-making bodies of over 500 companies, both private executive and supervisory boards, female chairpersons remain the and public, in Germany. The results are then shown in exception. a Europe-wide comparison. Following the law passed by the federal government cabinet last year on equality for women and men in managerial positions, both at private companies and in the civil service, female representa- tion, at least on supervisory boards, is likely to improve. The gender quota introduced in this legislation will come into effect on Janu- 1 Most recently in 2014. see E. Holst and A. Kirsch. “Women Still the Exception on Executive Boards of Germany’s Large Firms — Gradually ary 1, 2016. Companies with government-owned shares will also be Increasing Representation on Supervisory Boards.” Economic Bulletin. no. 3 affected by the quota regulation. Here, female representation on (2014). 2 This selection was based on Wolters Kluwer Deutschland GmbH. the supervisory boards and executive boards at the end of 2014 Deutschlands Top-Unternehmen (November 2014). Research into the composition of corporate boards was conducted from November until late was just under 24 and just under 15 percent, respectively. December 2014. The data are based on online company profiles, company interim and annual reports for 2013, German Federal Gazette publications, as well as specific data requests made by DIW Berlin. 3 The DAX 30 index refers to the largest companies in terms of market capitalization and stock market trading volume. These are followed by MDAX companies (mid caps) and SDAX companies (small caps). The German TecDAX stock index comprises the largest 30 German companies from the technology sector. DIW Berlin has been examining female representation on the corporate boards of DAX 30 companies for seven years, MDAX and SDAX companies for four years, and TecDAX firms for two years. 4 See E. Holst and A. Kirsch. "Financial Sector: Share of Women in Top Decision-Making Bodies Remains Low." Economic Bulletin no. 4 (2015). DIW Economic Bulletin 4.2015 35 WOMEN EXECUTIVE Barometer: Companies Table 1 Women on Executive and Supervisory Boards1 in Germany’s Largest 200 Companies (Excluding Financial Sector) Top 200 Top 100 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2013 2014 Executive boards / management boards Total number of companies 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 100 100 With data on composition 195 184 191 187 195 197 200 195 197 97 97 With women on executive board 9 15 17 16 22 22 33 35 43 19 17 Percentage 4.6 8.2 8.9 8.6 11.3 11.2 16.5 17.9 21.8 19.6 17.5 Total number of members 953 893 934 833 906 942 970 906 877 484 461 Men 942 877 911 812 877 914 931 866 830 461 442 Women 11 16 23 21 29 28 39 40 47 23 19 Percentage of women 1.2 1.8 2.5 2.5 3.2 3.0 4.0 4.4 5.4 4.8 4.1 Total number of chairpersons 195 184 191 187 195 198 198 194 183 97 92 Men 195 184 190 186 193 197 196 190 179 96 92 Women 0 0 1 1 2 1 2 4 4 1 0 Percentage of women 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.5 1.0 2.1 2.2 1.0 0.0 Supervisory boards / administrative boards Total number of companies 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 100 100 With data on composition 170 145 168 153 166 163 170 157 155 86 85 With women on supervisory board 110 101 124 110 117 118 128 123 133 71 76 Percentage 64.7 69.7 73.8 71.9 70.5 72.4 75.3 78.3 85.8 82.6 89.4 Total number of members 2500 2268 2466 2175 2293 2268 2369 2159 2156 1231 1232 Men 2304 2074 2236 1961 2050 1999 2064 1834 1759 1044 1003 Women 196 194 230 214 243 269 305 325 397 187 229 Percentage of women 7.8 8.6 9.3 9.8 10.6 11.9 12.9 15.1 18.4 15.2 18.6 Total number of chairpersons 170 145 168 153 167 167 171 160 149 87 84 Men 167 143 166 151 165 164 168 156 144 83 81 Women 3 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 5 3 3 Percentage of women 1.8 1.4 1.2 1.3 1.2 1.8 1.8 2.5 3.4 3.4 3.6 Companies with data on employee 123 108 129 103 110 105 118 83 118 46 63 representation Total number of members 2206 1773 1910 1732 1506 1567 1638 1291 1869 748 1043 Men 2023 1616 1742 1563 1360 1391 1438 1088 1521 640 845 Women 183 157 168 169 146 176 200 203 348 108 198 Female employee representatives 139 117 125 121 105 119 117 110 200 61 113 As a percentage of women members 76.0 74.5 74.4 71.6 71.9 67.6 58.5 54.2 57.5 56.5 57.1 1 At year end. Only companies providing data on the composition of their corporate boards. Source: Calculations by DIW Berlin. © DIW Berlin 2015 The percentage of women on executive boards in the largest 200 companies in Germany was a little higher in 2014 than in 2013, but it remained extremely low at just over five percent. Top 200 Companies Executive Boards: Posts for Women Remain Rare In 2014, female executives on the corporate boards of In 2014, just below 22 percent of the top 200 companies the 200 largest companies (outside the financial sec- had at least one woman on the executive board — an in- tor) remained few and far between, making up just crease over the previous year of almost four percentage over five percent (see Table 1). Female representation points. Overall, 47 or a good five percent of the total 877 on the supervisory boards has been higher for some positions on executive boards were held by women.