And that was certainly just the most prominent and recent “case” of a woman from a managerial position this year. Among others, their positions also vacated: Tina Müller (Douglas), Donata Hopfen (DFL) and Christina Johansson (Bilfinger). The first two were CEOs or chairmen of the board, i.e. the respective number one, the third CFO.
The three women gave up for different reasons. Reasons I do not want to go into detail here. Each of these cases is also anything but pleasant for those involved. And yet: in the overall view, these “cases” definitely have something very positive. Because they show: failure is finally also female. And that’s right and important. Why?
First, because we see that women have finally arrived in the front row on a relevant scale. Not long ago when a woman resigned was a huge media event – simply because it was an extremely rare event.
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Because there were hardly any women in management positions. Firstly, Carla Kriwet was neither the first nor the only female Dax CEO to resign. There’s already failed co-SAP CEO Jennifer Morgan and there’s still successful Merck CEO Belen Garijo.
“There were hardly any women in management positions”
Secondly: According to an analysis by the Allbright Foundation, more and more companies are taking diversity in management seriously: In September 2022, three large DAX companies (Continental, Fresenius Medical Care and Siemens Healthineers) had a balanced ratio of men and women on the board for the first time, three more (Beiersdorf, Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes Benz) were only slightly removed from a 40 percent share of women. And in 2022 there were twelve new women and 14 new men on the Dax40 boards. The rate of climbers looked significantly worse.
Third: The top managers Kriwet, Hopfen and Müller were able to vacate their posts without the traditional reactions such as “It was clear, women simply can’t do it!”, at least no one dared make such a comment publicly.
Fourth: A woman is often followed by a woman. At least that’s how it was at Carla Kriwet and Fresenius Medical Care. Helen Giza, who had previously been CFO, succeeded her as CEO. This means that women at the top of German corporations are not and will not remain a historical error, as Chancellor Angela Merkel was supposed to be at the beginning of her term in office.
Fifth: Women are very self-confident in dealing with their departures. Both the top football manager Donata Hopfen and the Douglas boss Tina Müller communicated their resignations frankly and freely on LinkedIn. They did not leave the “announcement” to the respective press departments or a spin doctor specially commissioned by their corporations. With this, too, a new quality of female leadership has been achieved. Women step up and down confidently and self-determinedly.
But it is also clear that there is still a lot to be done before parity is achieved in the top management echelons of German business. In September, more than half of the companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (81) still did not have a single woman at the top management level.
The topic of sexism is still more widespread than you think
Almost all of them were small and medium-sized companies in SDax and MDax, but it reflects the sad trend. Overall, the proportion of women on the Dax boards rose only slightly by 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous year and reached a measly 14.2 percent.
And unfortunately it is also more than obvious: The topic of sexism is still more widespread than one thinks in some places or perhaps might think. At the opening of the German Construction Industry Day on November 23, the building contractor and President of the German Construction Industry Association (ZDB), Reinhard Quast, answered the moderator’s question as to whether she could roll out the red carpet for him: “Do you want to?” undress or what?”
>> Read here: Parity only in 42 years – Five reasons why board members in the Dax family are mostly men
Incidentally, not only his own kind sat in the hall, i.e. older, white gentlemen from the construction industry, but also allegedly Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz (SPD), Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP) and the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz.
However, there was only an outcry on social media days later, after the association had uncritically put this prelude online. Quast only apologized 14 days later in an open letter. And Reinhard Quast was re-elected as President anyway.
To ensure that times are less “magnificent” in the future, it is right and important that the rise and fall of women in the management floors of the German economy are normal and no longer an exceptional situation.
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