Not only private companies, but also public companies must increase the proportion of women on their top management bodies.
43 companies with federal participation are affected by the law on the minimum participation of women on executive boards, which came into force yesterday.
Twelve of them have not yet had a woman on their board of directors, so the next time the board of directors is reassigned, it is imperative that they appoint a woman to their top management body, according to an analysis of the “Women on Supervisory Boards” (FidAR) initiative.
The companies affected that do not yet have a wife on the board include the S-Bahn in Hamburg and Berlin, Forschungszentrum Jülich and some rail subsidiaries such as DB Systemtechnik, DB Energie and the bus companies Autokraft and Südbadenbus.
“The decision-makers in public sector investments now have to deliver”, demands FidAR President Monika Schulz-Strelow, up to now they have “not done justice” to their role model function.
In the private sector, one sees “a significantly steeper learning curve”, she said with a view to the recently stagnating proportion of women on the boards of public companies.
She also considers the previous plans of many public companies to be insufficiently ambitious, apparently there are "signs of fatigue".
Stricter rules for public companies
For the investigation - sponsored by the Family Ministry - FidAR examined the composition of the top management bodies in the 263 largest public companies. These include companies with federal or state participation such as airports, university hospitals, energy works, water companies, lottery companies, transport and housing associations. On average, 22 percent of management positions in public companies were held by women - as many as in the previous year. In the private sector, the proportion of women in comparable companies is still lower, but has recently improved.
The new regulation with the awkward name "Second Management Positions Act" (short: FüPoG II) was passed by the Bundestag shortly before the summer break.
The law obliges certain large companies to have at least one woman on the top management level as soon as the board of directors consists of at least 4 members.
Because the management bodies in public companies are often smaller, an even stricter regulation applies to them: You have to appoint at least one woman with 3 members or more.
In addition, the law also contains binding rules for setting targets and reporting obligations for a larger group of companies.
In the future, companies face a fine in the event of violations.
"The days of pure men's clubs are over"
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht was instrumental in advancing the new regulation. She once again praised the new edition of the law as a “milestone” for women in Germany. "The days of all-male clubs are over," said the minister. The federal government has also set itself stricter targets than the private sector. According to the minister, the boards of the most important companies with federal participation are to be filled “equally with women and men”. The federal government is setting a good example: "It would be good if the regulations for federal companies also send a signal to the federal states and municipalities, because there too few women make it to the top."
The first version of the Executive Positions Act has been in place for more than five years. At that time, the law introduced a women's quota of 30 percent for supervisory boards of large companies, but there was still no mandatory minimum number of women for board members. The proportion of women on the supervisory boards of large companies has risen significantly since then, in some cases beyond the minimum requirement.