Study shows: Women underrepresented at the top of municipal companies - developments also vary greatly from region to region in Baden-Württemberg
Friedrichshafen. In Baden-Württemberg, as in Germany as a whole, the management levels of municipal companies remain firmly in the hands of men - women continue to be significantly underrepresented. With a share of 21.4 percent, only one in five top positions in Baden-Württemberg's municipal companies is held by a woman, which is still below the targets set by politicians. In a comparison of all 16 federal states, Baden-Württemberg is below the overall average (22.1 percent) in 10th place. Overall representation is therefore below the figures for DAX 40 companies for the second year in a row. This is the result of the recently published study "Women in top management bodies of public companies - a Germany-wide city comparison" by Zeppelin University (ZU).
Last year, 27.9 percent of new appointments to top management positions were made by women - an increase of 6.0 percentage points compared to the previous year (21.9 percent). Hamburg (55.0 percent) and the cities in Thuringia (50.0 percent) had the highest figures for new female appointments; the lowest figures were recorded for the cities in Schleswig-Holstein (14.3 percent) and Saarland (0 percent). The differences in new appointments are particularly worthy of discussion, but should always be considered in context.
The highest proportion of women in top management was once again achieved in the cities of eastern German states: in Thuringia (29.7 percent) and Saxony-Anhalt (26.7 percent). The city states of Berlin (34.9 percent), Hamburg (26.6 percent) and Bremen (25.3 percent) also maintained their top positions. In contrast, the cities in Lower Saxony (15.2 percent), Schleswig-Holstein (13.9 percent), Rhineland-Palatinate (13.6 percent) and Saarland (9.8 percent) brought up the rear. In the study of the 69 cities surveyed, Freiburg once again occupies a leading position among the cities in Baden-Württemberg, as in previous years, with a share of 30.8%. Karlsruhe (27.6 percent) is above average this year, while Mannheim (21.4 percent) remains just below average, followed by Stuttgart with 20.0 percent, while Heidelberg continues to have a share of 4.3 percent.
"What is particularly interesting from a scientific point of view is that there is also a considerable difference in representation and serious differences in development between neighboring cities. In addition to many other 'cultural issues', a Public Corporate Governance Code with clear regulations promises very important potential here," explain Professor Dr. Ulf Papenfuß and Dr. Christian Arno Schmidt from the Chair of Public Management & Public Policy at ZU.
In April 2024, Papenfuß and his team of researchers once again investigated the current status quo regarding the representation of women in public companies. Data from 69 cities and 1976 public companies with 2087 executives in all 16 federal states were analyzed for women in leading bodies such as management, executive management and the board of directors. In addition to the state capitals and city states, the four largest cities in each state were also analyzed, as were public companies at federal and state level. The research team focused on companies in which the public sector is involved, such as municipal utilities, local public transport, hospitals, trade fairs and social institutions.
The study was supported by the "zfm - Zentrum für Management und Personalberatung" in Bonn and the "AKDB - Anstalt für Kommunale Datenverarbeitung in Bayern" and accompanied the discussion of the topic in practice.
On Friday, July 12, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., a free online panel discussion will take place to mark the publication of the study. You can download the full study and register for the online panel discussion at puma.zu.de