40% women on DAX supervisory boards, not in management roles

The proportion of women on supervisory boards of companies listed on Germany’s DAX index of blue-chip stocks has reached a high of more than 40 per cent this year.

This is according to a study published on Tuesday.

However, management roles for women in the supervisory bodies of the 40 most valuable companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange were still the great exception.

HR consultancy Russell Reynolds concluded in their analysis as saying.

In the previous study, the proportion of female supervisory board members was 38.6 per cent.

Since 2016, a 30 per cent quota for women has been prescribed for the supervisory boards of listed companies with parity co-determination.

The vast majority of DAX companies now exceeded this quota.

In a European comparison, Germany was in its seventh place, in the middle of the field, with France in first place with around 46 per cent women.

According to Russell Reynolds, more female supervisory board members than male supervisory board members were newly elected this year for the second year in a row.

Women made up the majority on four DAX supervisory boards: Vonovia, Beiersdorf, Hannover Re and Zalando, while half of the members of three others were female; Bayer, Commerzbank and Covestro.

According to the analysis, 24 of the 40 companies have more than 40 per cent women on the board of directors.

However, according to Russell Reynolds, only two of the 40 DAX companies have a woman at the helm of the supervisory board, and only a fifth of the supervisory board committees are chaired by women.

According to the analysis, the proportion of women is far above average when it comes to a topic that is traditionally considered “soft’’ in business and politics.

Half of the DAX supervisory boards now include sustainability experts, and three quarters of these positions are held by women.

In terms of money, serving on a DAX supervisory board is lucrative for both men and women.

According to Russell Reynolds, the average remuneration in the 2023 financial year was 200,000 euros (216,000 dollars), 7 per cent more than in the previous year.

Russell Reynolds specialises in executive search and adviser services and it’s headquartered in the U.S. with offices in 47 countries.