The proportion of women in the top floors of medium-sized companies fell again last year after a brief interim high in 2020.
According to an evaluation by the state development bank KfW, 16 percent or 608,000 of the approximately 3.8 million small and medium-sized companies in Germany were run by women.
A year earlier it was 638,000 companies.
The previous high was recorded in 2013.
At that time, 19.4 percent of medium-sized companies were headed by a female manager.
According to KfW chief economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib, one of the main reasons for this development is the significant decline in business start-ups in Germany in recent years.
"Anyone who wants female bosses needs female founders and women in all economic fields or industries," said Köhler-Geib on the occasion of International Women's Day this Tuesday.
According to this, women mainly run service companies, which are smaller on average and suffered particularly badly from the consequences of the Corona crisis.
Law provides momentum
In contrast to medium-sized companies, the proportion of women in the management of large companies has recently increased.
Statutory regulations also provided a tailwind.
For example, the women’s quota for executive boards that has been in force since August 2021 stipulates that in listed and co-determined companies with more than 2,000 employees and more than three executive board members, there must be at least one female manager on the board when new appointments are made.
Since 2015, there has been a women’s quota for supervisory boards of companies above a certain size – usually more than 2,000 employees.
According to the KfW study, the hope that this could also encourage the entry of women into the executive floors of medium-sized companies has so far remained unfulfilled.