Company: Study: Quota of women on DAX boards is stagnating

The quota of women on DAX corporate boards stagnates at 23 percent after the legal quota has been met. The human resources consultancy Russell Reynolds came to this conclusion in an analysis. Accordingly, nine female board members left last year and only eight were added. “What’s even more serious is that seven of the nine departing board members held their office for less than three years,” said consultant Jens-Thomas Pietralla in Munich.

Of the male board members, only 15 percent left so early. On average, according to Russell Reynolds, the men who left in 2023 had a term of office of almost eight years and were also on average six years older than the women who left. “No one left because they reached the age limit, but for men, age played a role in 35 percent of the outgoing board members.”

Four of the eight newly appointed women were entrusted with the management of the human resources department, the four others were given a board position with responsibility for results. “But in order to qualify for the role of CEO on the board through responsibility for results, you often have to have previously proven yourself in operational business by managing a region or managing a business area. Female managers with these experiences are rare,” said consultant Thomas Tomkos . “In this way, the classic distribution of roles between men and women on the board is maintained.”

According to the law, listed companies with equal co-determination must have at least one woman with four or more board members. According to human resources consultants, the proportion of women in the MDax, the stock market index of medium-sized German stock corporations, increased last year from just under 14 to just over 17 percent: nine women were added, five of them as CFOs; four were eliminated. Russell Reynolds Associates is an international human resources consultancy.