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GERMANY’S parliament approved a system today requiring leading companies to have at least 30 per cent of their supervisory board members be women from next year.
The quota will apply to the directors of more than 100 listed companies, though not to their management boards.
Another 3,500 firms will be required to set targets of their choosing to raise the number of female directors and women in other leadership positions.
“If there are no equal opportunities at the top of companies, there are none in other areas either,” said Minister for Women Manuela Schwesig.
MPs from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition backed the legislation.
But opposition MPs, who argued that it didn’t go far enough, abstained.
“A real quota for women must apply to all companies,” said Left Party MP Caren Lay.
The new quota will not apply to government employees, though officials are pledging to increase the number of women in public-sector jobs.
A recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research found that women accounted for only 18.6 per cent of supervisory board members — the German equivalent of directors — at the biggest 100 companies.
The Federation of German Industries criticised the 30 per cent quota as a “purely symbolic policy” and complained that the legislation would allow punishment for private companies but not the public sector.
Starting next year, companies that have not met the quota would either have to appoint a woman to fill a supervisory board vacancy or leave the seat empty.
