Text from the Indicator Report 2022
Percentage of women on supervisory boards of listed and fully co-determined companies
This indicator measures the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of listed companies and joint-stock companies with more than 2,000 employees as well as European Companies (SE) and listed companies that are subject to equal co-determination. The data is based on publications of the results of elections at general meetings of shareholders of listed and fully co-determined companies, which are evaluated by the association “Frauen in die Aufsichtsräte” (FidAR) and published in the form of a Women on Board Index (WOB-Index).
In January 2022, the average proportion of women on the supervisory boards of these companies was 35.6 % (January 2015: 21.3 %). This means that the target share of 30 % was already reached in 2018 – twelve years before the deadline set in the German strategy for sustainable development. However, the share in 2022 slightly decreased for the first time since 2015.
Provided that the companies complied with the law, this increase was to be expected as the “Act on the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Executive Positions” since 2016 requires at least 30 % of the supervisory board positions to be filled by women in all newly elected supervisory boards of the above-mentioned companies.
With regard to the results, it should also be noted that the majority of companies in Germany and most of the management positions in the economy are excluded by the underlying definition. On the one hand, the group of reporting entities currently comprises 101 companies according to the definition. On the other hand, the roughly 1,600 supervisory board positions considered by FidAR to date represent only a small portion of management positions in the economy with its 882,000 managers in 2018 according to the structure of earnings survey (more recent data was not available at the time of going to press). These numbers illustrate that only part of the management positions in a company are considered when the coverage is limited to the supervisory bodies.
According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), managers are all persons who plan, control, coordinate and evaluate the overall activities of companies, governments and other organisations or internal organisational units and who review and evaluate guidelines, laws, rules and regulations. This definition includes the activities of supervisory boards. When the ISCO classification is applied, 22 % of the 882,000 management positions in the economy (all companies with more than one employee) were filled by women in 2018. This figure is reached by considering all businesses with at least one employee for whom compulsory social insurance contributions are payable, excluding entities in sector O “Public administration and defence; compulsory social security” and parts of sector P “Education”. Compared with 2014, the year of the previous structure of earnings survey, this represents an increase of 1.2 percentage points.
Percentage of women in management positions in the federal civil service
The data basis for this indicator comprises the internal gender equality statistics collected by all offices of the federal government pursuant to the Federal Gender Equality Act. Since 2015, these statistics have been compiled every second year, updated to 30 June of the reporting year, by the Federal Statistical Office on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. For improved transparency, the indicator will receive biannual data from extended monitoring by the measure IX 1.b by the German strategy for sustainable development and the second managements position act (FüPoG II) provided by subordinated departments of the direct federal administration regarding the number of women and men in management positions. The indicator is focused on the employees in management positions in all departments of the Federal Government. Their number includes all persons employed on a full-time or part-time basis as well as those who have been given leave of absence on grounds of family or care responsibilities or have been entirely released from their normal duties. The departments of the federal civil service encompass the supreme federal authorities, the subordinate federal authorities and courts and the corporations, agencies and foundations established under federal public law.
The concept of management positions that is used in the federal gender equality statistics differs from the aforementioned ISCO definition. There is therefore only limited scope for comparisons between the different statistics.
According to § 3 of the gender equality statistics regulation (GleiStatV), managers have hitherto comprised those persons who have command and leadership duties in departments of the civil service. In the supreme federal authorities these are predominantly employees of the higher service (from head of section to State Secretary). Further, other departments of the central government are authorized to transfer leadership positions to employees in higher intermediate or intermediate services. In order to ensure a certain degree of consistency and to enable comparability of the data, only employees with supervisory and management duties in the higher service are recorded in the supreme federal authorities, irrespective of whether employees in the higher intermediate or intermediate services also perform such duties in these departments.
In 2021, the proportion of women in management positions in the federal civil service was about 39.6 % (2000: 19.5 %). Thus, the proportion of women has doubled in size since 2000. If the trend of the last five years were maintained, the target of virtual numerical equality in management positions in the federal civil service by 2025 would be narrowly missed.
