Last year, the proportion of women on the executive boards of large companies in Germany did not increase as much as in 2021. This is reported by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in its female manager barometer published this Wednesday.

The slowdown is set in, although there has been a statutory minimum number of women on executive boards since August 2022 - at least if the board has four or more members, is listed on the stock exchange and has equal co-determination.

The specification applies to replacements;

Companies affected do not have to actively part with men on the board.

The economic research institute assumes that as early as 2021 many companies will react to the approaching law and promote more women;

In 2022, the momentum slowed down again.

A total of 62 companies have to comply with the new legal requirements.

To date, 13 of them do not have a single woman on the board.

At the end of the year, the proportion of women on the executive boards of the top 200 companies was around 16 percent;

in the Dax 40 companies, all of which are affected by the minimum participation requirement, there were significantly more at around 22 percent.

"The gap is closing," said the DIW economist Katharina Wrohlich, looking at the data, but: "It's slowly closing." In any case, for the first time the proportion of women on German executive boards was higher than the EU average - but only if you the largest listed companies.

Progress is also being made on the supervisory boards.

The top 200 companies there had a proportion of women of 31 percent in 2022.

In the Dax 40 companies, the proportion was even 37 percent women on the supervisory board.

Here, too, it can be seen that quotas do have an effect.

The proportion of women in those companies that are subject to a gender quota on the supervisory board is significantly higher than in companies without a gender quota.

During the presentation of the figures, the issue of the origin of female managers on German executive boards was also discussed.

Researcher Katharina Wrohlich said it was true that there were a striking number of women from abroad in the positions of CEO.

"The social norms with regard to employment of women and mothers are partly different in other countries," she explained.

The pool of women who could be promoted from the second level to a CEO position is sometimes higher abroad than in Germany.