In its 60-year history, ZDF has had five directors so far. Two of them were called Karl, neither was a woman. This is how you could summarize what has now moved more than 200 ZDF employees to an open letter. And then there is the present: there are five men on the ZDF management team, including Thomas Bellut, who is still director. Two of them are named Peter, and there is also: a woman. Her name is Karin Brieden, she is the administrative director and deputy director of the ZDF.
One woman is not enough, says the network “Frauen im ZDF” in the letter addressed to the ZDF board of directors. In many areas of the station, women have long played a subordinate role. “How else can it be explained that in almost 60 years it has not been possible to place more than one woman on the management board?” They write. This applies to almost all German executive boards, but as is so often the case with public law, it is a bit more complicated.
In March 2022, the previous ZDF program director Norbert Himmler will take up his work as the sixth director. In the summer he prevailed in an election before the television council against Tina Hassel, the head of the ARD capital studio in Berlin. On this current occasion, too, the network is calling for “parity in the management of ZDF”.
The question is whether a modern media company can come up with a completely male management team
Two new positions will have to be filled there in the next year. The program director, because Norbert Himmler will become director, and the editor-in-chief, because Peter Frey, who has been in his post since 2010, will be 65 next year and his contract will expire. The demand of the ZDF network: The two vacant positions should be filled with female executives. The upcoming personnel decisions next year, it is said, “will have to prove the modernity and diversity internally and externally.”
It is not appropriate for a modern media company to present a predominantly male management, “visibly in contradiction to the self-formulated claims of the company.”
According to its own statements, the network “Frauen im ZDF” was formed in autumn 2020, and more than 220 women from all areas of the ZDF group have joined. Her goal: “We want something to change in the patriarchal corporate culture on ZDF.”
ZDF is not alone in this. At Arte, more than 400 employees wrote a letter in the spring to ensure that women should also have an equal say in the decision-making process in this house, which is meticulously respecting equality between Germans and French. Arte’s board of directors is currently all male.
At ARD, there has been a woman at the top since May 2021, program director Christine Strobl, the first in this position. When she was elected in 2020, the Pro Quote Medien association congratulated them, but immediately followed up with criticism: Unfortunately, Strobl is the only woman in a leadership carousel that the directors had just decided on. Four other top positions were filled with men at the same time: the ARD editor-in-chief, the Degeto manager, the Funk manager and the deputy head of the ARD capital studio. For Pro Quote media: “A poor certificate.”
The public broadcasters are particularly obliged to the entire population
The criticism of the male management levels in the case of the public broadcasters is also rooted in the fact that they are particularly committed to the general population. Not only in their program, but also within the company, they must endeavor to represent diversity and equality. Yes, according to Pro Quote: “What use is it if the broadcasters employ gender equality officers and hold coaching on diversity on the one hand, while gender equality apparently does not play a role in personnel decisions?”
In 2018, the association examined the gender balance in broadcasting. It came out: Half of the workforce and a large part of the young journalists in public broadcasters are women, but women are either in the minority or completely absent in the management ranks of most companies. In 2018, the association only counted two women in the twelve public broadcasters (nine state broadcasters of ARD, ZDF, Deutsche Welle and Deutschlandradio) in the directorships.
Since then, some chairs have moved, Patricia Schlesinger (RBB) and Karola Wille (MDR), the two directors from 2018, are today in the company of Katja Wildermuth (BR) and Yvette Gerner (Radio Bremen). At the artistic director level, the proportion of women would have been increased to four out of twelve. However, the majority of the broadcasters’ control bodies were made up of men in 2018. According to Pro Quote, the average proportion of women on the radio, television and radio boards was 41.5 percent, and on the supervisory boards 38.5 percent. After all, the ZDF board of directors is now at least more equal than its management, five out of twelve members are women.