Share 12.4 percent

Women are slowly but surely making their way to the boardroom

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

It is still mostly men who make it to the top of listed companies. However, more and more women are succeeding in demonstrating their leadership qualities and being appointed to the board, according to the latest Mixed Leadership Barometer published by the auditing and consulting organization EY. Out of 202 board members, 25 are women - this means that their share has risen from 8.6 percent to 12.4 percent within a year - the highest figure to date.

Previously, things looked even worse in terms of equality: Because in July 2015, the proportion of women on the Management Board was a meagre 4.1 percent. But even today, the top of the company is largely reserved for men, as only 3 of the current 25 female board members are CEOs. Most women in the boardroom are responsible for finance as CFO or are operationally active.

Management level still a male domain in many places
And for the majority of companies listed in the Vienna Stock Exchange Index, the executive floor is still a purely male domain: 32 of the 56 companies do not have a single woman on their board. Only one company has two female board members.

The real estate sector currently has the highest proportion of women in management, at 21 percent. In the financial sector, the proportion of women is 14 percent. However, women are also represented slightly above average in the consumer goods sector and among energy suppliers, with 13% each.

Gender quota works
The situation is better in terms of equality on supervisory boards: The proportion of women here rose by 1.3 percentage points to 30.9%. This is due not least to the gender quota of 30% introduced in 2018. As a result, the proportion of women on supervisory boards rose from 18.8% in December 2017 to the current figure. However, Helen Pelzmann, Partner (EY Law) and responsible for the "Women. Fast Forward" initiative at EY Austria.

After all, there are once again legal requirements that companies will have to fulfill in the foreseeable future: From 2026, they will have to meet gender quotas set by the EU Parliament and the member states. These stipulate that at least 40 percent of supervisory board positions or 33 percent of management and supervisory board positions must be filled by the underrepresented gender.