Status: 07.02.2022 8:18 a.m
DAX companies are appointing more and more women to their executive boards. According to a study, the proportion will be more than 20 percent in April. However, there are still corporations without women on the top management board.
The proportion of women on the DAX boards is growing: Last year, 42 percent of the newly appointed board members were women, increasing the proportion of women from 15 to 19 percent, according to the Russell Reynolds HR consultancy. As a result of new appointments that are already known, the proportion of women will rise to more than 20 percent in April.
“The change has arrived in the companies. This is also reflected in the fact that 55 percent of the new female board members are internal promotions, i.e. women are appointed from within the company,” said consultant Thomas Tomkos. More and more companies are preparing female executives for tasks in top management through targeted personnel development. “That’s more important than any quota.” Advisor Jens-Thomas Pietralla said: “The intensive public discussion about women in management positions is bearing fruit.”
Only slight increase in the MDAX
According to the census, however, eight of the 40 DAX companies do not have a woman on the board. According to the statutory quota for women, which has been in force since August 2021, two of them must appoint a woman the next time there is a change in the Executive Board. The law does not apply to the other six because they are not co-determined or the board only has three members.
In the 50 medium-sized stock corporations in the MDAX, the proportion of women rose from 11.0 to 11.7 percent last year. According to the personnel consultants, only men are on the board of directors in 29 of the 50 companies.
According to the legal regulation regarding the quota for women, in listed and equally co-determined companies with more than 2000 employees and more than three board members, care must be taken to ensure that at least one woman sits on the board of directors when new appointments are made.
Other listed or co-determined companies that do not fall under the minimum requirement must justify if they plan to have their board without women and thus indicate a “zero target” in their reports. If this does not happen, fines threaten.