Politics

Doubts and conjecture surrounding gender equality

The increase in the number of women who occupy positions of leadership and who are appointed to Supervisory Boards stipulated in contract of coalition by the two parties in government is causing ripples of unease among top managers. The government timetable provides that by 2017, the Supervisory Board of every major, stock market listed company in Germany have at least one woman member.  A draft of the plan will be published by the Ministry for Families in the second half of February or at the latest, by the first week in March. Failing this, the timetable set out by Minister Manuela Schwesig to enshrine the quotas on gender equality into law before the end of 2014 will unravel. The coalition contract states that the composition of “fully co-determined, stock-market listed” company Supervisory boards reappointed in 2016 must have a female to male ratio of not less than 3:7. Many deem that two years is too short a time for the quota to be introduced everywhere. The number of women who have reached the top slot of major German companies over the last two years is still not enough and this means that there are only a few women managers in possession of sufficient operational expertise and experience to take effective command of a  group.