5.1.b, c Women in management positions in business and in the federal civil service
5.1.b Women on Supervisory Boards of Listed and Fully Co-Determined Companies
This indicator reflects the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of public limited companies (AGs) and partnerships limited by shares (KGaAs) with more than 2,000 employees, as well as European Companies (Societas Europaea, SE) and listed companies subject to parity co-determination.
The data source is the evaluation of publicly available information by the association “Frauen in die Aufsichtsräte” (Women on Supervisory Boards – FidAR), published in the so-called Women-on-Board Index (WOB-Index).
Since the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions Act came into force in 2016, at least 30 % of newly appointed supervisory board positions in listed and parity co-determined companies must be filled by women. Additionally, the revised German Sustainable Development Strategy of the same year set the target of filling at least 30 % of all supervisory board positions (not just new appointments) in these companies with women by 2025. This target was already reached in 2018, with a share of 30.9 %.
As part of the 2025 update of the German Sustainable Development Strategy, the target was raised to a minimum of 40 % women on supervisory boards by 2030. As of January 2025, the share stood at 38.6 % (by comparison: January 2015: 21.3 %). If the trend of recent years continues, this goal is expected to be reached well before 2030.
It should be noted that this indicator captures only a limited segment of companies and leadership positions in the private sector. Currently, the reporting population covers around 100 companies. The approximately 1,600 supervisory board positions assessed by FidAR represent only a small fraction of the roughly 1,165,000 managerial positions in the economy (according to the 2024 earnings structure survey).
According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), executives are defined as individuals who plan, manage, coordinate and evaluate the overall activities of enterprises, authorities, or other organisations or their internal units – including members of supervisory boards. Based on this definition, in 2024, women held 27 % of the total 1,165,000 executive positions in the private sector – an increase of 6.4 percentage points compared to 2014. The data includes all businesses with at least one employee subject to social insurance contributions, excluding Section O (“Public administration, defence and compulsory social security”) and partly Section P (“Education”) of the economic classification.
5.1.c Women in Management Positions in the Federal Civil Service
As one of Germany’s largest employers, the federal government has set itself the goal of achieving gender parity in leadership positions by 2025, as defined in the Second Act on Equal Participation in Leadership Positions (FüPoG II), which came into force on 21 August 2021.
The indicator covers all full-time and part-time employees, as well as staff who are on leave or fully released from duties due to family care responsibilities. It applies to supreme federal authorities, their subordinate agencies, and federal public-law institutions, corporations and foundations.
Until 2022, the indicator was based on a special analysis of unpublished data from the Federal Gender Equality Statistics in accordance with the Federal Gender Equality Act (BGleiG). Since 2015, the Federal Statistical Office has compiled these statistics every two years on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ), with a reporting date of 30 June.
As part of the further development of the Sustainability Action Programme, the statistics were expanded in 2021. Since 30 June 2022, supreme federal authorities have also been recording mid-year data on the number and percentage of women and men in leadership positions in their subordinate agencies within the direct federal administration.
According to § 3 of the Gender Equality Statistics Regulation (GleiStatV), “senior staff” includes individuals with managerial and supervisory duties within federal agencies. In the supreme federal authorities, this typically includes higher-level civil servants – from heads of divisions to state secretaries. In other federal agencies, such roles may also be held by employees in the upper or middle service. However, for consistency, the indicator includes only those in senior roles within the higher service, regardless of whether similar roles are held by others in different pay grades in certain ministries.
This definition of leadership positions in the equality statistics and monitoring differs from the ISCO classification used in indicator 5.1.b. Therefore, direct comparisons between the two indicators are only partially meaningful.
In 2024, the share of women in leadership positions in the federal public service was 46.5 %, up from 19.5 % in 2000. This means the proportion has more than doubled since 2000. If recent trends continue, the politically defined goal of gender parity – i.e. near-numerical equality – will likely be achieved by 2025.
In 2024, the proportion of women in senior positions within the supreme federal authorities stood at 44.7 %, slightly below the figure for subordinate authorities (46.7 %). The highest share was recorded by the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ), with 67.2 % (60.4 % in its subordinate authorities). It was followed by the Federal Press Office with 55.2 %. The lowest proportion was reported by the Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg), with 36.5 % in the supreme authority and 29.6 % in its subordinate bodies.
