When people argue about statistics, it’s often about one topic: causation or correlation? So the question of whether one factor led to the other or whether the two occur more and more coincidentally. Nicole Voigt is familiar with the question. She is an engineer, a numbers person, a partner at Boston Consulting, where she is responsible for the Gender Diversity Index.
Year after year, this index shows how many women there are in the management floors of large companies and what the consequences are. In her current study about the year 2021, Voigt found out that companies that promote gender equality on the executive board and supervisory board often also work in a more social, ecological and sustainable way. Large listed companies do particularly well. Prominent examples are Allianz, Siemens and Deutsche Telekom. “Large corporations with a high market capitalization are pioneers in terms of both gender diversity and social and ecological aspects and are driving change in Germany,” says Voigt.
The study, which BCG carried out together with the Technical University of Munich, is further proof that the question of whether a company is always run by the same middle-aged men or by a diverse team is not a moral question. It’s not about political correctness and feminism. It’s about economic success, or more precisely, whether the company meets the so-called ESG criteria. ESG criteria (ecological, social, good corporate governance) are also important for the many investors who only give money to companies that pay attention to sustainability. And on diversity.
Various companies are also more attractive for investors
What Voigt cannot prove is causality. No one can prove statistically whether more women in top management mean that companies, for example, start placing more value on more environmentally friendly production. Or whether it’s the other way around: companies that already attach importance to the major issues of the time could also tend to make their management team more diverse. “In any case, it’s connected,” says Voigt. “Companies that are interested in how society sees them invest in ecology, sustainability and diversity.” It is probably also a kind of sure-fire success because sustainable companies are more attractive as employers. “Companies with higher ESG values also attract more diverse teams. Diversity and economic success belong together.”
Various companies are also more attractive for the financial industry. The three major American financial investors, Vanguard, Blackrock and State Street, have repeatedly stated publicly that they will no longer let companies to which they give money get away with it if they only have men in the most important managerial jobs. And they are also paying increasing attention to the environmental balance of their portfolio companies. The influence of the capital market is growing, says TU Munich professor Isabell Welpe. And the capital market attaches increasing importance to so-called impact investing, i.e. investments in socially valuable companies. “Sustainability and ESG disclosure requirements will increasingly oblige companies to make metrics on diversity and inclusion public.”
The frontrunners in the BCG Gender Diversity Index, which is being published for the fifth time, are Deutsche Telekom, the software company SAP and the lubricant manufacturer Fuchs, which also shows that companies from traditionally male industries can definitely get women into management. The proportion of women on the Management Board and Supervisory Board and their remuneration compared to their male colleagues are decisive for the performance in the diversity index of the 100 largest German corporations in terms of market capitalization. One of the biggest losers in the ranking is Ceconomy. The electronics retailer, which owns the Mediamarkt and Saturn chains, was fourth last year and has now slipped to 38th place. Despite such setbacks, gender equality has improved in the 100 largest companies in the German share indices Dax, M-Dax and S-Dax. With 13 percent women on the executive boards of the top 100 companies, the quota is 3.3 percentage points higher than in the previous year.
Last week, another study took a look at 19 European countries. Of the 668 companies surveyed, only 50 have a female CEO, 7 percent. Last year there were only 42. The low proportion of women is “shocking,” says Hedwige Nuyens, chairwoman of the European Women on Boards (EWOB) initiative, which commissioned the study. “That has to change. We simply cannot afford to waste the majority of our well-trained talent. As a society and as an economic area, Europe faces major challenges that can only be overcome together.” A fixed quota and binding targets have had an effect in Norway, France and Great Britain. These countries top the EWOB ranking. Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on the other hand, rank in the lower third.