Study: “Gemany´s female executives – how women make it to the top in corporate management”

Hardly a social issue has been more heatedly debated over the past months than that of “women in the boardroom”. Several major German corporations have recently made a voluntary commitment to introduce a concrete quota of women, adding to the dynamics of the debate. Though companies are increasingly recognizing that they cannot do without qualified and experienced women in corporate management, women still make up a negligible share at the top.

Why is the share of women specifically at the very top of management still so low? Why do so few women manage to rise from the ranks of middle management to head companies? What needs to happen in order to increase the share of women in corporate leadership in Germany?.

In this study we aimed to get to the root of these and similar questions, and to do so we interviewed the 49 women at the top level of management – Germany’s female bosses – for the first time on the issue of “women in executive positions”. The goal of our study was to glean concrete recommendations for corporate and political policymakers, and for the female managers themselves.

Download a copy of the study by clicking on the picture below.