Germany, Your Misogynistic Companies: The proportion of women in leadership positions in this country is rising only slowly. The current situation: On average, 31 percent of all employees are women, but only 14 percent of positions at the department head level or higher are held by women.
What about business ownership? Today, one in five businesses with at least one employee subject to social security contributions is majority-owned and led by women, according to a study by the Institute for SME Research (IfM). However, the Bonn-based institute notes that these companies are generally smaller than those led by men and are more frequently found in the service sector.
The analysis also showed that companies led by women tend to be younger than those headed by men. 71.5 percent of companies led by women were founded after 1989—compared to only 64.8 percent of companies led by men. The researchers attribute this to the startup boom that has been observed among women since the 1980s.
According to the study, about half of female business owners plan for succession within the family—and about one in five female owners plans to sell the business. By comparison, the figures for male-led businesses are slightly lower—though this appears to be largely due to the fact that, more often than their female counterparts, these business owners have not yet decided on the type of succession.
Only one in ten female owners expects problems that could threaten the business’s survival when handing over the business, while three-quarters of those surveyed do not anticipate any difficulties at all, according to the study.
