Women's share in executive suites has its impact

By Sophie Haller

Discussion of women's quota on supervisory and executive boards appears controversial Germany Strong impact, in Austria There is still room for improvement.

According to a recent study, the proportion of women in the executive suites of German stock exchange companies is higher than ever before.

In May this year, women held 37.3 percent of supervisory board positions in the 180 companies surveyed, up from 35.3 percent the previous year, according to the organization’s Women on Boards Index. Women on supervisory boards (Vidar) goes out.

Equality shares

Since 2016, a quota of 30% for women on German supervisory boards has been set. This applies to all listed companies on an equal basis in the joint decision.

If they have more than 2,000 employees, they have also been subject to minimum board participation requirements since 2022. This means that if there are three board members, there must be at least one woman on the board. Thanks to this “board quota,” companies achieved a female participation rate of 19.3 percent, one percentage point higher than the previous year.

Although the study's authors see a clear impact of the women's quota, most companies are still far from achieving gender equality. The German organization therefore calls for the quota regulations to be expanded to include more companies.

The share also operates in Austria.

In Austria, there has also been a 30% statutory quota since 2018 – although this is only mandatory for supervisory boards of listed companies and companies with more than 1,000 employees.

Since 2018, the proportion of women in companies subject to quotas has increased from 22.4% to 36.5% in 2024. Women's Management Report Working Room (Justice and Development Party) It resulted inAt the beginning of 2024, the 20 companies in the leading ATX stock exchange index had a 33.8 percent share of women on supervisory boards.

Currently, 12 of the 20 ATX companies exceed the 30 percent threshold, eight of which have at least 40 percent women on their supervisory board. However, no ATX company has more women than men on its supervisory board.

Low percentage of women on boards

Women are severely under-represented on boards, and there is currently no legal quota for them – unlike in the neighbouring country. In companies linked to the supervisory board quota, their share is only 14%.

According to the AKP, the proportion of women on the boards of major companies listed on the ATX is only 11.8 percent. “Voluntary work is simply not enough, legal quotas are necessary and effective to increase the proportion of women,” he says. Heinz Letzmuller, Head of Business Administration at AK Vienna, in an interview with KURIER.

The AKP is therefore calling for a quota system based on the German model to be established in the board of directors as well. This step alone would create 34 senior positions for women. Furthermore, the framework conditions for board members with regard to parental and care obligations need to be improved.