In Hanover, half of the top positions in municipal companies are held by women. This is the highest figure in a new study. Overall, female managers in municipal companies are making slower progress.
According to a study, the proportion of women in management positions in companies in larger cities has risen slightly. The proportion of female managers in municipal companies was 22.1 percent in April – 0.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier, according to an analysis by Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen.
Despite the increase, the proportion of women in the management levels of municipal companies is still well below the political goal of parity and the values of the DAX 40 companies, said study director Ulf Papenfuß. Municipally owned companies can be, for example, nursing homes, museums, hospitals, local transport companies or municipal utilities.
Municipal companies behind DAX corporations
For comparison: According to data from the non-profit Allbright Foundation, the proportion of women on the boards of the 40 stock market heavyweights was recently 23.2 percent (as of September 1, 2023). The difference can probably be explained in particular by the legal requirements. Listed and co-determined companies with more than 2,000 employees and more than three board members must now ensure that at least one woman sits on the top floor when making new appointments to the board.
Even stricter requirements apply to federal companies: if the company has more than two managing directors, at least one position must be filled by a woman. According to Papenfuß, clear rules for filling management positions could help to further increase the proportion of women in municipal companies. He suggests that these should be based on those for federally owned companies.
1,420 companies were examined
Across Germany, 1,420 municipal companies in 69 cities where the public sector has the majority were examined. 461 of the 2,087 positions on the board, management or executive board were filled by women. In addition to the city states and state capitals, the study also included the four largest cities in each federal state – measured by population. In addition, federal and state companies were also examined. The data was collected in April.
During the period under review, 244 top positions in municipal companies were filled – 27.9 percent of them by women. Although this is an increase of 6.0 percentage points compared to the previous year, it is still comparatively low, it was said.
Hanover at the top of the ranking
The leader was the Lower Saxony state capital Hanover, with a 50.0 percent share of women in the top echelons of municipal companies (previous year: 37.50 percent). This was followed by two cities in Thuringia: Weimar with 44.4 percent (plus 11.1 percentage points), closely followed by Jena with 42.1 percent (previous year: 33.3 percent). Offenbach am Main, the frontrunner from the previous year, came in fourth place.
According to Papenfuß, there are serious differences in development. It is also striking, for example, that more than half of the cities in which at least 30 percent of top positions are occupied by women are in eastern Germany.
No female managers were found in municipal companies in Ingolstadt, Osnabrück, Neunkirchen, St. Ingbert and Völklingen. In the latter cities in particular, all in Saarland, there are only comparatively few companies that could be taken into account according to the study’s methodology. However, there are cities with comparatively small investment portfolios that have a higher proportion of women in management – in addition to Regensburg (23.1 percent), for example, there is also Weimar, which comes in second.
Source: Stern
