Almost one in four companies without a woman on the management board
Published: Friday, Feb 23rd 2024, 13:50
Updated At: Friday, Feb 23rd 2024, 13:50
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In a few years' time, Swiss companies will be subject to benchmarks for the number of women in management. After years of strong growth in the representation of women on management boards, the trend has now stalled somewhat.
Of the 100 largest employers in Switzerland, almost one in four companies still has no women on its management board, even though a minimum quota of 20 percent will apply to listed companies from 2031. Specifically, 23 companies currently have no women in top management, according to a report published on Friday by executive recruiter Guido Schilling.
In the majority of companies, there are individual women on the management board. And in 20 companies, the proportion of women on the management boards is even over 30 percent.
However, Guido Schilling expected better figures, as he explained in a video conference with journalists. This is because more and more women have been joining management boards in recent years. In 2019, more than half of companies still had no women on their management boards. And just four of the hundred largest employers had a female quota of over 30 percent in the top operational management body. Now, however, the trend is stagnating. In other words, the number of companies with no women has risen slightly over the past year, while those with a high quota of women has fallen slightly.
Faster exit after a shorter time
Study author Guido Schilling sees the main reason for the stagnation in the high turnover of women on management boards. Last year, significantly more women resigned from their positions on management boards than in previous years. According to Schilling, it is striking that female management board members who left office had been on the board for three years, which is significantly less time than their male colleagues who had been on the board for seven years.
"Such a short period of membership can hardly be sustainable," said Schilling at the presentation of the report. He believes that one explanation for the higher fluctuation is that women on management boards are more likely than men to have joined the company from outside rather than having been appointed internally. As a result, they first have to familiarize themselves not only with their new role, but also with the company and its culture. Those appointed internally, on the other hand, are already familiar with the company's specific DNA and are already networked, which helps them to establish themselves in a position.
For Schilling, it is therefore clear that in order to ensure gender diversity in management in the long term, companies are well advised to retain women in their own ranks, particularly in middle management. The executive recruiter also believes that companies could make a name for themselves with working conditions that make it easier to combine career and family. With women, but also with men. He has noticed that young men are also increasingly concerned about reconciling their career with their family and social life.
In his opinion, the labor market will therefore be the driving force behind a more balanced gender representation in management in the coming years. "Companies where gender diversity is not an issue will be at a disadvantage," Schilling is convinced.
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