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Today is International Women’s Day. The day on which it is remembered that – to put it bluntly – there are also women who are at least as successful as men. Provided man lets us. 😉
Before the male readers cry out and immediately complain: “But that doesn’t apply to me.” That’s right, fortunately there are now many men who have understood that it’s about working together and not against each other. However, many obstacles are still thrown in women’s way. Be it on the career ladder or when women juggle the trick, family and work, as a matter of course, they usually get blame instead of praise. “Well, that little bit of household chores and raising children isn’t that bad, is it?” Admittedly, it’s a stupid saying, but unfortunately it’s still widespread. Worse still, I don’t even want to address the many variants that exist only on this topic. Anyone who accumulates this quickly realizes that it is high time to stop bashing.
International Women’s Day should wake up
Actually, International Women’s Day is ancient. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 19, 1911 in Denmark, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. Socialist organizations created it before the First World War in the struggle for equal rights, women’s suffrage and the emancipation of women workers. In 1921 it was moved to the 8th – by a decision in Moscow of the Second International Conference of Communist Women. In 1975, the United Nations chose the date as “United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and World Peace”. From a historical perspective alone, International Women’s Day is a day that should be a wake-up call.
Achieved much and little
A lot has happened in the many years that International Women’s Day has been celebrated. And yet the impression arises that women are treading water. This is particularly evident in the proportion of women in management positions of 24.1 percent. The information service provider CRIF evaluated almost 2.5 million management positions in 1.2 million companies. A year earlier, the rate was 24.6 percent. She has fallen. Traditionally, the proportion of women in eastern Germany is higher than in western ones. It reaches 29.6 percent – for comparison, it is 22.9 percent in Hamburg and 22.3 percent in Baden-Württemberg. Depending on the federal state, more than 70 percent of management positions are held by men.
The bigger, the less
The size of the company also influences the proportion of women in organizations. The simple rule applies: the larger the company, the more clearly the proportion of women in top positions decreases. In large companies, on the other hand, it increases again. Small companies form a positive contrast to this. In companies with up to ten employees, more than every fourth manager is a woman. The rate is 27.6 percent and drops to 12.3 percent for companies with 101 to 500 employees. Large companies with more than 10,000 employees account for 16.9 percent of women in management positions.
High turnover, few women
When it comes to sales, the same rule of thumb applies as for company size. Companies with a turnover of less than one million euros – 25.9 percent – have the highest proportion of women. If the turnover is over 100 million euros, it drops to 12.4 percent.
creditworthiness
However, when it comes to creditworthiness and solvency, women-led companies are at the top. If women run companies at the decision-making level, the risk of insolvency is lower at 7.3 percent than for companies run by men (8.9 percent). Even when it comes to creditworthiness, companies with female bosses are better off. The average creditworthiness index is 2.47 – for men it is 2.55. A lower credit rating index means a lower probability of default. And is therefore to be evaluated more positively.
High proportion of women in retail
The CRIF analysis shows that the proportion of women in managerial positions is highest in healthcare (36.9 percent) and in trade (26.2 percent). Especially in e-commerce, women are among the drivers. In the publishing industry, too, it reaches a relatively high value of 24.4 percent. On the other hand, there are few women in decision-making positions in sectors such as construction (9.7 percent), mechanical engineering (9.8 percent) and energy supply (11.2 percent).
Few women on supervisory boards
The figures for supervisory boards paint a rather gloomy picture. Women are underrepresented there. Just over every tenth supervisory board chair is held by a woman (11.3 percent). Here, too, the east-west divide in Germany is clearly visible. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the proportion of women is 26.4 percent. Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony and Bavaria, on the other hand, have 8.4; 8.9 and 9.3 percent bring up the rear in the evaluation.
The distribution in stock corporations is not much different. Just 10.4 percent of female executives hold board positions. After all, Berlin achieved a share of 12.5 percent.
Summary of International Women’s Day:
The evaluation by CRIF clearly shows that women are still underrepresented in management positions, especially in Germany. The quota has even suffered more due to the corona pandemic. This shows that despite good will, as many men like to pretend, there is still a lot of work ahead of us before the employment structure among managers can even come close to being balanced. Above all, it takes courage to throw outdated working models and clichéd thinking overboard in order to make room for innovative, creative employment models. But that would be an enrichment for everyone.
Christiane Manow-Le Ruyet
Lead photo: Franz Pfluegl – Adobe Stock
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