FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - According to a study, the number of women on the management boards of listed companies in the DAX family has more than doubled since 2020. At the beginning of the year, there were 128 female managers on the top boards of the 160 companies, according to an analysis by auditing firm EY. However, women are still clearly in the minority - they currently sit opposite 568 fellow board members. Many boards are also purely male-dominated. In the Dax, MDax and SDax stock indices, almost four out of ten companies have no female managers on their boards.

"Although we are seeing a stable upward trend, the proportion of women on management boards remains manageable - especially at companies that are less in the public eye," said Ev Bangemann from EY Germany. A number of companies (49 percent) are content with appointing just one woman to the board. "This leads to the assumption that only the minimum legal requirements are being met."

Companies with more than 2,000 employees and more than three board members that are listed on the stock exchange and co-determined on a parity basis must also ensure that there is at least one woman on the board when new appointments are made.

Women most strongly represented on DAX management boards

In the second half of the year, 41 new members joined the management boards of the 160 companies analyzed, 16 of whom were female, which corresponds to a share of 39 percent. In the first half of the year, women accounted for 42% of newly appointed board members.

Female managers continue to be most strongly represented at the top levels of the 40 DAX companies. Almost a quarter of the board members of the leading German index are female (24%). However, no women have been added since summer 2023. The proportion of female board members is significantly lower among the medium-sized companies in the MDax (18%) and the smaller companies in the SDax (14%).

Female managers head the management boards of seven of the 160 companies, including Belén Garijo at the chemical and pharmaceutical group Merck, Helen Giza at dialysis provider Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) and Yvonne Rostock, who heads the photo service provider Cewe./mar/DP/zb