The proportion of women in executive floors is particularly high in the East. At least every fourth management position is held by women. Why is that?
A current study by Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen examines the proportion of women in public companies in cities. The makers come to a conclusion that focuses primarily on the East.
Cities in eastern Germany have the highest proportion of women in top management: in Thuringia (26.6 percent), Saxony-Anhalt (26.5 percent), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (25.2 percent) and Brandenburg (24.5 percent). And more than half of the 69 cities surveyed with more than 30 percent of top management positions held by women are in eastern Germany.
women in executive positions
It is particularly noticeable in a comparison of the cities in the federal states that all eastern German federal states show above-average values. The eastern German federal states (excluding Berlin) have a total of 23.0 percent women – including Berlin 25.8 percent.
In contrast, the proportion of women in the western federal states without the city states of Hamburg and Bremen is 17.2 percent – with the two city states it is 18.9 percent. Overall, there is “a clear gap between East and West,” write the researchers from Baden-Württemberg.
Work culture in Eastern and West Germany
Friederike Theile is Managing Director of the State Women’s Council in Thuringia. The sociologist is not surprised by the results of the study: “The numbers match what I’m observing.”
The work culture in East and West Germany is still different: “More women work full-time in the East. This also means that they are more frequently found in management positions.” Higher positions in companies are rarely part-time.
She goes on to say: “In 1989, the GDR was at the top of the world in terms of the proportion of women who worked. That still has an impact today. Housewifery marriages were not particularly widespread in the East.”
women in top management bodies
In all 16 federal states, the data from 69 cities and 1430 companies with 2089 executives were analyzed for women in executive bodies such as management, executive board and board of directors. In addition to the state capitals and the city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, the four largest cities in each state were also included. In addition, the public companies at federal/state level were also analyzed.
full-time employment and childcare decisive
Jessica Bock doubts that the employment of women in the GDR still has a strong impact on the proportion of women bosses today. She works at the Digital German Women’s Archive and did her doctorate on the subject of the women’s movement in the GDR.
Bock says: “This explanation is often used. I have to say that I take a critical view of it. Yes, women in the GDR worked more often than in the West. But they weren’t more often in management positions. The women’s jobs back then did have an effect, but I think you shouldn’t overestimate this fact.”
In any case, the network of childcare in the east has a beneficial effect, says Bock and emphasizes: “Full-time, because there is still a big wage gap between east and west.”
East or western socialization?
The Friedrichshafen researchers did not record the socialization experienced by the women who make up the proportion of top management positions in the East, where they were born or whether they had East German parents. Rosemarie Will, who worked as a professor of law at Humboldt University in Berlin until she retired, says this is often the case with such studies.
Women from the west can make a career more easily in the east because the labor market is not as competitive, she says: “There’s more space here.” This could also have an impact on the proportion of women managers in companies in the East.
When looking at the study results, Jessica Bock is important not to conclude that women in the East have a head start in terms of emancipation: “In my opinion, this pattern of interpretation helps to cover up existing inequalities between the sexes and the disadvantages faced by women in the East.”
women continue underrepresented
The federal government has set itself the goal of having 30 percent of management positions occupied by women by 2030. In Germany as a whole, the proportion of women in management positions is currently lower at 21.5 percent. In addition, when new top management positions were filled last year, only 21.9 percent of the positions were filled by women – significantly less than in the previous year, when the figure was around 32 percent.
Friederike Theile from the Thuringian State Women’s Council is therefore looking to the future with mixed feelings: “I hope that childcare and parental allowance as key conditions that mothers can also work will be further expanded. Hopefully the East will not adapt to the West in a negative way.”