Women are still underrepresented in management positions in German companies. Why is that? And what do professionally successful women do differently from the supposedly less successful ones? We will introduce you to clever strategies that help female professionals in particular to climb the career ladder.
Women in leadership positions: What is happening in Germany?
Women as managers are still rare in this country. Only 29.2% of all management positions are held by women, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office for 2021. This puts Germany in 20th place out of 27 in the EU comparison. The leader, Latvia, has around 46% female executives.
The higher the management level, the less women are in charge. But something is moving. Never before have there been as many women in the executive chairs of major German corporations as in the last year: 109 of a total of 705 board members of the DAX family are female – that is at least 17 women more than in the previous year. It is the highest rate since the first evaluation in 2013. At the same time, only nine of the 160 companies surveyed have a female CEO. These include, for example, Merck, ThyssenKrupp and Deutsche Wohnen.
Most things are happening in the 40 DAX companies: In 85% of cases there is at least one woman in the management team, and more and more vacancies are being given to managers. This is confirmed by a current study by the German testing and consulting organization EY. A new EU-wide quota for women can further support this positive development. There should be 40% women on the supervisory boards of listed companies with more than 2000 employees – that is the target for 2026. Alternatively, at least one third of the supervisory boards and executive boards must be women.
If you look at all sectors and companies, the bottom line can be said: In more than two thirds of the areas examined, women work less frequently in management positions. A common explanation for this is that the majority of men work full-time and climb the corporate ladder faster. But there are certainly a number of reasons why women are less likely to hold managerial positions than men. We present the most important ones.
Children as career killers?
Having children is an event that runs through many female professional biographies. And by that time, women usually have lower salaries than men. The result: Significantly more mothers than fathers reduce their monthly workload. And in many cases this does not happen because of discrimination, but because of economic considerations. In turn, the shorter working hours have an impact on gross hourly earnings, because well-paid positions are less often filled part-time – or are not designed for part-time from the outset because they are managerial positions.
In the end, fewer hours worked affect the monthly salary. In addition, women with a part-time job have fewer opportunities for advancement. Men, on the other hand, usually lay the foundation for their careers from the age of 30. It is more difficult for women with children to achieve their career goals in their 30s and 40s. They often stumble between balancing family and career advancement.
Apply for job / Add a job postion
Obstacle corporate culture
Whether women make it into management is often a question of corporate culture. Maternity leave and parental leave usually entail a high level of personnel expenditure. Choosing a male boss is the supposedly safer option. If women then have children, most of them are dependent on flexible working time models. After all, most of them work part-time. How flexibly a company reacts to this is often culturally anchored. Job-sharing models such as top-sharing, i.e. sharing a managerial position, are at least becoming more and more popular.
Whether there are managers and female board members in the company often depends on whether there were already women at the top or how progressive the company management is. The trend here is very positive. In the 40 German DAX companies, for example, more and more managerial positions are being given to women.
High internal pressure
Barriers in the minds of the women themselves also prevent them from taking the leap into a managerial position. They fear that their stress – both professionally and privately – will become even more extreme. Especially in male-dominated industries, women have to do more than men so that colleagues accept them. Managers often not only want to meet their own expectations, but also to meet external demands. This is how Nicole Dreyer-Langlet, Vice President Research & Technology at Airbus in Germany and Senator from Helmholtz, described it. “I was driven by the demands I made on myself and by showing everyone that I could do better than the men around me.” A great deal of pressure that not everyone was able to cope with.
In addition, bosses – probably shaped by the classic understanding of roles – are extremely self-critical of themselves. On the one hand, this is a quality that is particularly motivating. On the other hand, it can also lead to self-doubt that prevents women from taking the next step in their careers.
All of these stress factors are sometimes difficult to assess before taking up a managerial position and could lead to women deciding against promotion.
Creating career opportunities yourself: Successful women give tips
Fortunately, there are many shining examples of women who have overcome stumbling blocks and have had exciting careers. What are they doing differently? What can we learn from them? We asked three female executives these questions. In fact, we discover some similarities that we have compiled in the top tips.
Work flexibly with top sharing
The high part-time rate among mothers (65.5% of mothers; 7.1% of fathers in 2020) is a real pain point in women’s career paths. It is all the more important that parents divide their working hours more fairly, for example both work part-time. “We need the men to advance our own careers. That doesn’t sound very emancipated. But it is emancipated to see reality,” says Milena Glimbovski, entrepreneur and climate activist.
Employers can contribute to this with flexible working time models. Concepts such as top-sharing, where two part-timers share a managerial position, can be a good option for both parents. “The goal should be to create more balance and flexibility in working hours,” says Rebecca Zöller, top sharer and journalist at Bayerischer Rundfunk. She has two children and shares a team lead position in feature film series digital with another mother.
Originally, the full-time position was only aimed at one person – unthinkable for Rebecca. But then her idea of a job tandem got rolling. “If you do it in pairs, you can fill a responsible position and even take on important projects at the same time,” explains the journalist. In addition, the team always has a contact person, regardless of whether the child is ill, on vacation, etc. And of course there is twice the brain power, which is immensely important in the creative industry.
In order to be able to successfully implement this model in a company, the women themselves have to say goodbye to old thought patterns. After parental leave, women with children should be just as demanding and help shape a company and plan their working hours in such a way that they are happy with it. “You shouldn’t adapt your life to your job, but rather adapt your job to your life,” is Rebecca’s motto.
Strong together through networking
Women need to exchange experiences with each other. It is much easier to take advice from a woman who has a similar professional history or is going through the same family situation. Sometimes it takes a loving nudge from a like-minded person to take a step forward.
Therefore: Build up a strategic network or seek support from a mentor. Especially in male-dominated industries, you should make useful contacts with other women professionals. Nicole Dreyer-Langlet comes from one such area. As Vice President Research & Technology at Airbus, she advises many women in the company and had a mentor herself. “My mentor’s motto is: to help one woman a day. I’ve gotten used to that too. It doesn’t always have to be career advancement, a few words of encouragement and positive energy can make a difference. Women I talk to are now planning to do the same. And so at some point we end up with a nice Ponzi scheme.”
And this is exactly how networks work: They reproduce themselves. It is all the more important that women connect with each other in order to get into this cycle.
The many job-related networks for women offer a platform for this. There you will find offers for professional development, workshops, trade fairs and conferences as well as the opportunity to exchange professional and personal experiences.
A network can also be very supportive in the private sphere, especially for mothers. Milena Glimbovski moved from Berlin to a small town in the country. There she built up a community with other families, women and neighbours. “This network has had an incredible impact on my work. Consciously creating structures, being there for each other in crisis situations is important for your career, important in times of the climate crisis and adaptation, and especially for women.” Because the majority of mothers still take on the care work when the time comes there are failures, e.g. B. when the day care centers close during a heat wave. With a well-functioning network, there is an opportunity to master such additional workloads together in the future.
Accept and master new challenges
Stepping out of your comfort zone and mastering unfamiliar situations is an important skill for advancing professionally. Milena Glimbovski initially meets challenges positively. She doesn’t see them as a threat, but as an opportunity. When she started two companies, she faced many new problems and situations. “I have a recommendation for others and myself: First say ‘yes’ to things that scare me.” That sounds pretty courageous. It is. She says she still has time and opportunities to figure out how to do the job well.
Take a look: role models
Good role models are the be-all and end-all. You can learn patterns of behavior from them that no management training course in the world can convey. “I was able to learn from various bosses the way in which someone leads, develops a topic or enters into a negotiation. A good mentor also encourages and regularly shoves you in at the deep end,” says Nicole Dreyer-Langlet from her professional life. It was mostly male bosses she worked under, but in recent years more and more women have joined them.
Tip: Always ask yourself what you can learn from your manager. If you have a job offer, this can also be an important criterion.
Top sharer Rebecca Zöller has become a role model herself. “In the beginning we still had exotic status in our company. In the meantime, however, the model has arrived and a few more job tandems are slowly trickling behind it.”
