The management level of Germany’s middle class is still dominated by men. But something is changing. More and more women are reaching top positions. The regional differences are interesting.
In Germany’s middle class, significantly more women are in charge than before. While their share of small and medium-sized companies was only 18.9 percent in 2011, it is now 22.8 percent, said the credit agency Creditreform in Neuss, referring to data from 664,000 companies.
Economic researcher Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch justified the development with the general increase in women’s participation in the workforce. They chose self-employment and entrepreneurship more often than before. “In medium-sized companies, a female boss is no longer uncommon,” he says. This applies to companies with fewer than 250 employees.
By industry
However, things look different in the individual sectors. The proportion of female managers is highest in health and social services (51 percent), in “other services”, which include hairdressers and opticians, the figure is 47.3 percent and in the hospitality industry it is 30.4 percent. In the “arts, entertainment and recreation” segment it is 29.7 percent. In the manufacturing industry, however, it is only 12.5 percent and in the construction industry only 7.3 percent. “The reality in economic sectors often still reflects the classic career choice of the genders,” says expert Hantzsch.
By regions
In East Germany, a disproportionate number of women are in charge in companies: in Saxony-Anhalt, 25 percent of small and medium-sized companies are headed by a woman, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 24.7 percent and in Berlin 24.3 percent. In Baden-Württemberg (21.8 percent), Bavaria (21.7 percent) and Bremen (21.6 percent), however, relatively few women sit in executive chairs.
Source: Stern
