Men's dominance in Austria's management levels: Where are the women?

Men's dominance in Austria's management levels: Where are the women?

Wien, Österreich - In Austria, the proportion of women remains terrifyingly low on the management levels of the largest companies. Only every sixth management position has a woman in the 200 companies with the lowest sales, which corresponds to a modest proportion of 13.8 percent. Particularly alarming is the fact that in the board of listed companies of 218 members only 28 - that is 12.8 percent - are female. To illustrate the blatant inequality: In ten of the 69 companies listed on the stock exchange, both the board and the Supervisory Board are exclusively male, as a current study by AK Vienna shows.

future prospects and legal framework conditions

The study published by business economist Simone Hudelist points out that there will be no significant progress in gender equality in management positions in 2025. A bright spot could be the upcoming implementation of the EU directive "Women on Boards", which introduces a binding quota for the board members of listed companies. Nevertheless, large companies with more than 1,000 employees remain unaffected by this regulation and only have to meet a quota on the supervisory board. Therefore, AK Vienna also demands a binding women's quota for the management for these companies. In the past, the proportion of women on the supervisory boards has increased due to the quota regulation that has been in force since 2018 - from 22.4 percent to 38 percent - in management levels, however, progress does not occur, according to ots.at .

Austria falls far back internationally: In the Global Gender GAP of the World Economic Forum, the country in the economic participation of women only ranks in the 67th place of 146 countries. Austria does poorly, especially compared to Germany, where the proportion of women in Dax companies is 25.7 percent. The AK indicates the urgency of further measures in order to promote actual equality in the management levels. An expansion of the regulations to large companies and the link between management bonuses with goals for a higher female participation are urgently required, as vienna.at