Mobilizing for Quotas Against all odds: The Long Road to Corporate Equality in Germany

Ahrens P, Scheele A. Mobilizing for Quotas Against all odds: The Long Road to Corporate Equality in Germany. In: Engeli I, Mazur A, eds. Gender Equality and Policy Implementation in the Corporate World. Making Democracy Work in Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2022: 287-311.Corporate equality in Germany is still far out of reach with only 33.9% women on supervisory boards and 9.6% on executive boards in 2019. Until 2010, women’s share of supervisory boards was below 15%, and it only increased considerably after the adoption of the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and Public Sectors Act in 2015. Highly contentious, the policy process leading to the introduction of corporate gender quotas took almost twenty years. As the chapter asserts, the road to quota adoption and the practice of policy in action has been a slow incremental process that has yet to empower women or to achieve transformative outcomes

Regulation of ICAM-1 in cells of the monocyte/macrophage system in microgravity

Cells of the immune system are highly sensitive to altered gravity, and the monocyte as well as the macrophage function is proven to be impaired under microgravity conditions. In our study, we investigated the surface expression of ICAM-1 protein and expression of ICAM-1 mRNA in cells of the monocyte/macrophage system in microgravity during clinostat, parabolic flight, sounding rocket, and orbital experiments. In murine BV-2 microglial cells, we detected a downregulation of ICAM-1 expression in clinorotation experiments and a rapid and reversible downregulation in the microgravity phase of parabolic flight experiments. In contrast, ICAM-1 expression increased in macrophage-like differentiated human U937 cells during the microgravity phase of parabolic flights and in long-term microgravity provided by a 2D clinostat or during the orbital SIMBOX/Shenzhou-8 mission. In nondifferentiated U937 cells, no effect of microgravity on ICAM-1 expression could be observed during parabolic flight experiments. We conclude that disturbed immune function in microgravity could be a consequence of ICAM-1 modulation in the monocyte/macrophage system, which in turn could have a strong impact on the interaction with T lymphocytes and cell migration. Thus, ICAM-1 can be considered as a rapid-reacting and sustained gravity-regulated molecule in mammalian cells