Women in the lead: But progress remains terrifyingly slow!

Women in the lead: But progress remains terrifyingly slow!

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - The current “Women in Business” study by Grant Thornton shows worrying developments with regard to gender diversity in management positions. According to the results, the proportion of female managers in German middle classes fell from 36 % in 2018 to 30 % in 2019. This is a significant return to the negative trend that many feared. The global result remains stable at 29 %, which underlines the challenges that women still have to overcome in the corporate world. This is also shown in the study Grant Thornton , which illuminates the decline in gendarian fold in recent years.

slow progress in equality

A ray of hope in the current survey is the increase in the proportion of female CEOs in medium -sized companies to 21.7 %, an increase of 2.6 % compared to the previous year. However, this value remains behind the 28.4 % of 2023. It is particularly striking that 77.6 % of the companies now feel external pressure to promote equality, with advisors in particular: inside (67.5 %) have an important influence. This is a positive indication that many companies recognize the need to implement changes in order to increase both competitiveness and innovative strength, as well as Christoph Zimmel, CEO of Grant Thornton Austria: "Gender diversity is no longer only considered a duty, but as a strategic advantage."

However, the data also makes it clear that only 36.1 % of companies have clear targets for the proportion of women in management positions. Measures such as mentoring and networking are effective in particular: companies with clear goals in these areas were significantly increasing the proportion of women. In an international comparison, countries such as South Africa do remarkably well, while Asian industrial nations such as Japan and South Korea remain far behind expectations. The struggle for equality therefore remains one of the greatest challenges for companies worldwide, as Prof. Dr. Heike Wieland-Bilöse by Warth & Klein Grant Thornton in her comments determines the trend situation.