Women Managers: Enormous Deficit in Large Companies and Employer's Associations

Across Europe, there are much fewer women than men employed in executive positions. On European average, only 10% of the members of the highest decision-making bodies in the top 50 publicly quoted companies are women. However, the situation varies substantially from country to country. The European countries with the highest shares of women managers are Slovenia and Latvia, at 22% each, while the country with the worst record is Italy, at 2%. Germany, with a 10% share of women managers, is in the middle of the ranking order. However, the picture in Germany becomes less favourable when the figures for enterprises and associations are examined separately. For example, women occupy only 1% of the seats on the boards of management and 8% of the seats on the supervisory boards of Germany's 87 largest 'old economy' joint-stock companies. The situation is more favourable in the workers' representative bodies and the professional associations, where women account for between one fifth and one quarter of the executives - a figure that is still far removed from parity, however. Even under the broader definition of specialist and managerial staff in all areas of white-collar and public-service employment, the share of women is still less than one third, although women account for 45% of total employment in these areas. The German business sector's agreement of 2001 with the German government to commit itself to voluntarily promoting equal opportunity for women and men in the private sector has had very little impact to date at managerial level. Substantial effort is still required if this situation is to improve.

Management Staff by International Comparison: Most of the Women on Supervisory Boards in Germany are Works Council Representatives

In June 2004 only about one tenth of all the seats on the boards of the 200 biggest companies worldwide were held by women. In 22 of these companies women held at least 25% of the seats on the board. Three of the companies were German. Here the percentage is made up entirely of women who represent the workforce. In 72 of the 100 biggest companies in Germany at least one member of the supervisory board is a woman (7.5% of the total number of seats); more than 80% of these women acquired their seat through the works council. This sobering figure on corporate management is largely a result of the low number of women in top management jobs compared with men. According to information from companies women currently account for about one tenth of the management jobs in Germany. And although progress has been made in some areas in the past decade, an equal distribution of top jobs between men and women is still a distant prospect. In view of the considerable social and demographic changes now underway, it is essential to make better use of the potential of highly qualified women to ensure that the German economy remains competitive. Hence it is proposed to set up a high-ranking 'Glass Ceiling Commission', similar to the one in the United States. It should work out the economic and social consequences of this problem with the cooperation of the private sector, and develop recommendations on the measures and binding framework conditions that may be necessary. That could help to overcome the barriers to the promotion of women into management and decision-making positions.

Full-time Workers Want to Work Fewer Hours, Part-time Workers Want to Work Longer Hours

Since the reunification of Germany, average working times for men and women have followed different trends. There are various reasons for the difference. More and more women are gainfully employed; they engage in part-time and marginal employment, both of which are on the rise. The importance of full-time employment has declined. This accounts for most of the reduction in their average workweek, which decreased by 2.3 hours to 31.9 hours between 1993 and 2007. The full-time employment of men also declined, in both relative and absolute terms-unlike their average workweek, which, according to data provided by the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), totaled 43.3 hours per week in 2007. This is 0.8 hours more than in 1993. Overall, the working time of male and female wage and salary earners in West Germany and of such earners in East Germany have converged, though not the number of working hours preferred by women in the two regions. These numbers remain considerably higher in East Germany than in West Germany. The differences are most pronounced among women who work part-time. In East Germany, the women who this applies to often find that this form of employment provides too low a level of work. Long workweeks exceeding 40 hours are not very popular in either part of Germany-not even among men, at least half of whom work that long, though only 17 percent of them do so by preference.Working time, Working time preferences, Gender gap, East / West Germany

Women in Managerial Positions in Europe: Focus on Germany

Prejudices and stereotypical beliefs about the role of women in society often limit their chances of reaching top leadership positions. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the socioeconomic structure and the gender pay gap in managerial positions in Germany building on a review from a cross-national perspective of women's progress to high-ranking positions and of initiatives to overcome the "glass ceiling". Suggestions are made for improving the situation of women in order to permit more balanced gender participation in the economy, while also promoting national competitiveness and higher levels of wellbeing for the society.Women in management, ¿Glass ceiling¿, Socio-economic structure, Horizontal and vertical segregation, Gender pay gap, Diversity awareness

Migration and Money: What determines Remittances? Evidence from Germany

The determinants of migrants' remittances are the subject of this study based on German SOEP data. For our analysis of the probability and amount of remittances, we do not restrict ourselves on immigrants with a foreign citizenship, but focus on all individuals with a migration background. Major findings are: first, the degree of integration into German society matters. Second, the probability to remit is not dominated by income. Third, foreigners living in Germany are not a homogenous group concerning their remittance behavior: people with Turkish and former Yugoslavian citizenship, who are facing a comparable strong pressure for return migration, remit significantly more than others. The study points to potentially interesting directions for future research: (a) deeper investigations of the extent to which the legal status of the migrant influences cross-border transfer behavior and (b) reconsidering the theoretical arguments since the motive for remittances might have changed during the ongoing globalization process.remittances, international migration, altruism

Women Still Greatly Underrepresented on the Top Boards of Large Companies

Executive and supervisory boards of large companies in Germany are still dominated by men - to an extraordinary degree. Only 2.5% of all executive board members in the200 largest companies (not including the financial sector) are women, and only 10% of all seats on supervisory boards are occupied by women. The situation in the financial sector is similar: in the 100 largest banks, 2.6% of all executive board members are women, and in the 62 largest insurance companies, 2.8% of executive board members are women. The percentage of women on financial sector supervisory boards is higher than their percentage in the top 200 companies: 16.8% in banks and savings banks, and 12.4% in insurance companies. In total, about three-quarters of women with a seat on a supervisory board are appointed by employee representation bodies and therefore have their seat as a result of employee codetermination practices. Aside from a few positive examples, the situation on both types of management boards has hardly changed at all in the last few years. It remains to be seen whether the plan to gradually increase the number of women in management positions, as agreed upon in the German government's 2009 Coalition Agreement, will have more success than the voluntary commitments made by Germany's top business associations in their 2001agreement with the German government. The implementation of the latter initiative private-sector companies can be considered a failure given the virtually unchanged gender composition of top management in large private-sector companies.Board diversity, Women CEOs, Gender diversity, Management

Migration and Money - What Determines Remittances?: Evidence from Germany

The determinants of migrants' remittances are the subject of this study based on German SOEP data. For our analysis of the probability and amount of remittances, we do not restrict ourselves on immigrants with a foreign citizenship, but focus on all individuals with a migration background. Major findings are: first, the degree of integration into German society matters. Second, the probability to remit is not dominated by income. Third, foreigners living in Germany are not a homogenous group concerning their remittance behavior: people with Turkish and former Yugoslavian citizenship, who are facing a comparable strong pressure for return migration, remit significantly more than others. The study points to potentially interesting directions for future research: (a) deeper investigations of the extent to which the legal status of the migrant influences cross-border transfer behavior and (b) reconsidering the theoretical arguments since the motive for remittances might have changed during the ongoing globalization process..Remittances, international migration, altruism

A Critique and Reframing of Personality in Labour Market Theory: Locus of Control and Labour Market Outcomes

This article critically examines the theoretical arguments that underlie the literature linking personality traits to economic outcomes and provides empirical evidence indicating that labour market outcomes influence personality outcomes. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the extent to which gender differences occur in the processes by which highly positive and negative labour market outcomes are determined and in the processes underlying the development of one particular aspect of personality, locus of control. Gender differences were more pronounced in the results for years in managerial/ leadership positions than for locus of control. Negative labour market states were also marked by gender differences. We conclude by arguing that an explicitly value-laden analysis of the rewards associated with personality within the labour market could expose areas where the gendered nature of rewards by personality serves to perpetuate power relationships within the labour market.

Gender Pay Gap Lower in Large Cities than in Rural Areas

For years, the difference between the gross hourly earnings of women and of men has remained constant for German white-collar employees at about 30 percent. It is obvious that regional factors play an important role in explaining this difference. In rural areas, the gender pay gap is especially pronounced (2006: 33 percent) while in metropolitan areas it is considerably lower than the average (2006: 12 percent). This more favorable ratio is mainly due to the increased employment opportunities for highly-qualified women in cities. In addition, it is evident that where there are high levels of regional unemployment at the county level, women's pay suffers more than men's. The present study was based on the data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Focusing on white-collar salaried employees (Angestellte) allows us to analyze pay determinants on the basis of largely homogenous pay structures.Gender paygap, Metropolitan areas, Wage curve, Oaxaca-Blinder-decomposition

Glass Ceiling Effect and Earnings: The Gender Pay Gap in Managerial Positions in Germany

Although there are a variety of studies on the gender pay gap, only a few relate to managerial positions. The present study attempts to fill this gap. Managers in private companies in Germany are a highly selective group of women and men, who differ only marginally in their human capital endowments. The Oaxaca/Blinder decomposition shows that the gender pay gap in the gross monthly salary can hardly be explained using the human capital approach. Adding variables on gender-specific labor market segregation and dimensions of the household and family to the model allows more than two-thirds of the gender pay gap to be explained. However, taking selection effects in a managerial position into account (Heckman correction), the proportion explained decreases to only one-third. This reveals the real extent to which women are disadvantaged on the labor market. In addition, we observe not only that the wages in typical women's jobs are lower than in typical men's jobs but also that women are paid less than men in typical women's jobs. The two-thirds of the gender pay gap that remain unexplained represent the unobserved heterogeneity. This includes, for example, general societal and cultural conditions as well as structures and practices on the labor market and in companies that subject women to pay discrimination and pose an obstacle to them breaking the glass ceiling.Gender pay gap, managerial positions, segregation, Oaxaca/Blinder decomposition, Heckman correction