Berlin (AFP)

Germany will impose the presence of women on the boards of directors of large listed companies, according to a bill presented on Wednesday by the government of Europe's largest economy, which is clearly behind schedule on the issue.

According to the text, which has yet to be adopted by MEPs, at least one woman will have to sit on the governing bodies of German companies with more than three directors.

The appointment of women will also be compulsory on the boards of directors of companies where the State is a shareholder and in several public bodies.

"We can show that Germany is on the way to becoming a modern society, promising for the future", declared to the press the Minister for the Family, social democrat, Franziska Giffey who carried the text with her college of Justice.

The latter, the social democrat Christine Lambrecht, welcomed an "important signal for highly qualified women" calling on companies to "use the chance" offered by this quota to increase the feminization of managerial positions.

According to a recent study by the German-Swedish foundation Allbright, women represent only 12.8% of the board members of the 30 companies listed on Dax, the flagship index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

For the thirty largest groups in each country, this proportion is 28.6% in the United States, 24.9% in Sweden, 24.5% in Great Britain and 22.2% in France, indicates this study.

The bill, which will have to be voted on before the end of the term in September, was supported by Chancellor Angela Merkel but has encountered a lot of resistance within her conservative party (CDU) which governs with the Social Democrats of the SPD.

He is also criticized by part of the employers who denounce interference in the governance of companies.

The progress is considered insufficient by defenders of parity who believe that the impact of the quota will affect only a limited number of private companies.

A total of 73 companies would be affected by the rule change, 32 of which currently do not have a woman on their board of directors, according to the FidAR think tank, which advocates the representation of women at the top of companies.

While welcoming the bill, the German economic research institute DIW said that women's participation in the governing bodies of groups in the country continues to evolve at a "snail pace".

© 2021 AFP