Standstill in the top floor of family companies – still hardly any women

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – According to a study, women continue to make little progress in the top floors of large German family companies. According to the non-profit Allbright Foundation, at the beginning of March 8.3 percent of the executive boards of the 100 top-selling family businesses were female. The proportion of women is only half as high as in the 160 companies in the Dax (DAX 40) family (14.3 percent) and it hardly changes, as the study published on Thursday shows. Two years ago, the figure was around 7 percent.

According to the information, more than two thirds (68) of family businesses do not have a single female manager on the board. According to this, particularly little is happening in the 70 companies that are completely family-owned. Here, the proportion of women in the top floor has remained unchanged at 4.8 percent since March 2020. For comparison: For the 40 major Dax companies, it is 19.8 percent (as of March 1, 2022). The stock market heavyweights are the most in the public eye and are subject to strict transparency requirements, according to the study. “Public expectations are working.”

This is also evident when looking at the 19 family companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, which include BMW and Henkel (Henkel vz). At 16.4 percent, the proportion of women on the executive boards of these companies is significantly higher than the average for family businesses.

According to the Allbright Foundation, filling top positions that have become vacant is decisive for the different developments. While the listed companies systematically recruited women, family companies continued to recruit almost exclusively men. According to this, 38 percent of the new recruits in the 40 DAX companies since March 1, 2020 have been female, while in the 70 companies that are completely family-owned it was only 6 percent. Almost 90 percent of newly appointed executives in family businesses are West German men.

“Family businesses risk becoming second-choice employers in the competition for the brightest minds,” warned the managing directors of the Allbright Foundation, Wiebke Ankersen and Christian Berg. “Diversity attracts top talent, an outdated understanding of leadership does not.” One of the strengths of family businesses is that they think in terms of generations and not quarters. “That’s why you shouldn’t underestimate diversity and equal opportunities as a zeitgeist issue.” Rather, it is about one of the major, lasting social changes.

Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck wrote in a concluding remark on the study: “Successful transformation is inconceivable without diversity, without the equal integration of women into the economy.” More diversity in companies leads to more creativity, more problem-solving skills and more innovations, as numerous studies have shown in recent years.

The non-profit German-Swedish Allbright Foundation is committed to more women and diversity in management positions in business./mar/DP/eas