Women at management level

Staff management oriented to gender equality also requires more equal filling of management positions. As current studies show, women still only occupy a very small share of jobs at management level. In Germany, the share is around 10 % because of co-determination regulations. The comparable share in the USA is around 17.5 %.
What is worrying is the smallness of the increase of the share of women in top management and the decline by 2.3 % in the number of women in middle management since 1995 in medium-sized companies in Germany.

There is thus a risk that an image of management and leadership that is oriented to a male norm will dominate management culture with the attendant negative consequences for all other groups of people. A representative poll of German bosses by the German Consulting Group concludes that 94 % of the polled managers regard “feminine talents” as insignificant in top management. Management training that is oriented to gender equality is therefore immensely important for establishing a way of managing staff that takes proper account of current requirements of a changed worker and consumption structure and of global markets. The Glass Ceiling Commission in the USA found out as early as 1995 that the slight presence of women in the management levels of corporations has a considerable negative financial impact on the American economy.

• Brader, Doris/Lewerenz, Julia; Frauen in Führungspositionen. An der Spitze ist die Luft dünn, IAB-Kurzbericht 0206, 2006.
• CEWS: Mentoring-Programme erfolgreich implementieren, cews.publik.no4, 2003.
• Federal Glass Ceiling Commission: Good for Business, Making Full Use of the Nation’s Human Capital, Washington, D.C., 1995.
• German Consulting Group: Weibliche Eigenschaften sind in Chefetagen unerwünscht! "Männer bleiben lieber unter sich", 2005
• Holst, Elke: Führungskräfte im internationalen Vergleich: Frauen in Aufsichtsräten in Deutschland meist von Arbeitnehmervertretungen entsandt; DIW Wochenbericht 35, 2005.
• Holst, Elke/Schrooten, Mechthild: Führungspositionen: Frauen geringer entlohnt und nach wie vor seltener vertreten; DIW Wochenbericht 25, 2006.
• Kleinert, Corinna: Karriere mit Hindernissen. Frauen in Führungspositionen, IAB-Kurzbericht 0906, 2006.
• BMFSFJ: FrauenmachenKarriere.de
• Nina Smith: Do Women in Top Management Affect Firm Performance? A Panel Study of 2500 Danish Firms, IZA Discussion Paper No. 1708, 2005.
• Zusammenfassender Bericht der Konferenz "World Women Work" - Frauen und Führung, am 10./11. Mai in Berlin.