The proportion of female executives is higher in private DAX corporations than in publicly owned companies. In municipal companies, the proportion is only growing very slowly, as a study shows.
According to a study, the number of women on the management boards of municipal companies is increasing only slowly. In municipal companies, in which the public sector holds the majority, the proportion of women was 21.5 percent in March and April – and has therefore only increased by 0.9 percentage points within a year, according to the researchers at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen.
1429 companies in 69 cities examined
Municipal companies are, for example, public utilities, waste disposal companies, local transport companies, nursing homes or hospitals. Nationwide, 1429 municipal companies in 69 larger cities including the state capitals were analyzed.
According to the study, women were last considered in 21.9 percent of the 269 management positions in municipal companies to be filled. Compared to the previous year, this is actually a decline of 32.1 percent.
Code to minimum participation required
“From my point of view, every local authority should adopt a public corporate governance code, in which the requirements from the second management positions law on the minimum participation of women should be included as a recommendation,” says Ulf Papenfuss, head of the study.
There are no statutory regulations aimed at increasing the proportion of women for municipal companies – unlike, for example, listed corporations and companies with equal co-determination. With a company size of at least 2000 employees and more than three board members, these must ensure that at least one woman is part of the management body.
According to data from the non-profit Allbright Foundation, the proportion of women on the executive boards of the 40 DAX companies was 23.3 percent in March 2023 – which was higher than in municipal companies.
More women in the executive floors of East German cities
Among the municipally owned companies, the Hessian city of Offenbach took the top position with an unchanged proportion of women at 42.1 percent in the executive floors. Hannover ranked second with 37.5 percent (previous year: 31.3 percent), ahead of Berlin with 37.3 percent (previous year: 36.4 percent).
According to the evaluation, there were no female managers at all in municipal companies in Trier Osnabrück, Ingolstadt, Neunkirchen and Völklingen. According to the study, more than half of the cities with more than 30 percent female top management positions are in eastern Germany.