The proportion of women in leadership positions is higher than ever before

There are more women on the boards of the largest German stock exchange companies than ever before. This emerges from an evaluation by the auditing and consulting company EY.

With 136 female managers, as of January 1, 2025, more women than ever held board positions in the 160 companies in the DAX group – 14 more women than a year ago. According to EY, almost every fifth board member (19.6 percent) of these companies is female. The increase becomes clear in a ten-year comparison: in January 2015, there were just 25 female managers on the boards of Germany’s top 160 DAX companies.

Almost ten years ago, the then federal government introduced legal changes that were intended to increase the proportion of women in management positions. Since 2016, some listed companies have been obliged to adhere to a binding women’s quota of 30 percent when filling new positions on the supervisory board.

The regulations were later tightened: the so-called minimum participation requirement for board members has been in effect since 2022. It stipulates that in listed companies with equal co-determination, at least one woman must sit on the board of directors if it has more than three members. However, so far only companies with more than 2,000 employees fall under this requirement.

Associations such as the organization “Women on Supervisory Boards” (Fidar) have long been calling for an expansion so that at least 2,000 companies would be obliged to comply with the requirements for boards of directors and not just a few dozen.

According to Fidar, the proportion of women on supervisory boards, where the strictest quota currently applies, has almost doubled in the past ten years. The organization refers to both the top 160 DAX companies and 19 other companies with equal co-determination. While around 20 percent of women sat on the supervisory boards of these companies in January 2015, according to the organization, the figure is currently 37.2 percent.

“Certainly a lot has happened in the last few years,” says Fidar President Anja Seng. However, if one considers the goal of parity – i.e. a balance of women and men in leadership positions – it can be said: “We are far from there,” says Seng. She sees the need for action primarily in companies, but also at the political level.

From their point of view, the law needs to be tightened not only in terms of expanding the quota, but also in the goals that companies have to set for their proportion of women. Since 2016, more than 2,000 companies have been required to set a target for the proportion of women on boards and in top management. If they set the “zero” target, they have to justify it since 2021, when the law was expanded.

Seng points out that justification does not entail any consequences: “Sanctions must be imposed if companies do not specify target figures. We believe that this works because it would also create a sense of commitment and seriousness.”

The Federal Ministry for Women’s Affairs has seen “basically a positive development” since the introduction of the leadership positions law in 2015, as a spokeswoman says. Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) emphasized last August that the federal government did not want to require any more companies to have a women’s quota for the time being due to a lack of political majorities.

However, the minister is convinced of the effect of the quota: “Where there is a clear quota, it works. Where there is no clear quota, there is little movement,” she said. According to a ministry spokeswoman, there is still a need for action, especially in the private sector, especially if a company does not yet have quota requirements.

The spokeswoman also pointed out that violations of reporting obligations regarding target figures, justifications and deadlines could be sanctioned: “Companies and the responsible bodies that report the zero target figure without the specified justification face severe fines.”