Share of Women and Men in Leadership Positions, Private and Private Sectors (DE0012)

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Description: Regular monitoring reports on the development of the share of women and men in leadership positions and in private sector bodies and the public service in the framework of implementing the Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and the Public Sector (Gesetz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im öffentlichen Dienst, FüPoG). Aim: Increasing public awareness of participation of women and men in leadership positions by examining the effectiveness of the act and informing the public about the objectives of businesses and the federal administration. Status quo: The first annual information of the Federal Government about the development of the share of women and men in leadership positions and in bodies of the private and public sector was published on 9 March 2017 (Bundesrat document 193/17). Ambition: Changing corporate culture over the long term to get more women into leadership positions by giving the topic more prominence in public discourse in order to encourage companies to do more to ensure equal participation of women and men. New or ongoing: ongoing Implemented by: Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) Organizations involved in implementation: Federal Statistical Office, Bundesanzeiger publishing house Organizational unit and contact: Project Group for monitoring and implementing the FüPo Act, PGFuePo@bmfsfj.bund.de; Anna Riecken, Anna.Riecken@bmfsfj.bund.de; Division III A 2, Ulrich Seibert, seibert-ul@bmjv.bund.de Open government values addressed: Transparency, accountability Relevance: The public will gain access to understandable information on equal participation of women and men in leadership positions. This will create the necessary verifiability and transparency of progress in implementing the law and of its effectiveness. In addition, transparency will be promoted through an interactive data tool. The monitoring results are presented at http://www.bmfsfj.de/quote

12. Monitoring the Share of Women and Men in Leadership Positions, Private Sector Bodies, and the Public Service

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“Regular monitoring reports on the development of the share of women and men in leadership positions and in private sector bodies and the public service in the framework of implementing the Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and the Public Sector (Gesetz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im öffentlichen Dienst, FüPoG).”

Milestones:

12.1 Information of the Federal Government about the development of the share of women and men in leadership positions, private and public sector bodies; Report to the Federal Statistical Office about the composition of the bodies in accordance with the Act on the Participation of the Federation in Appointments to Bodies (Gesetz über die Mitwirkung des Bundes an der Besetzung von Gremien, BGremBG)

12.2 Report to the German Bundestag about the share of women and men in leadership positions, private and public sector bodies

12.3 Generating an index of the share of women in supreme federal authorities (gender equality index)

12.4. Statistics about the share of women in the entire federal administration (gender equality statistics)

12.5 Presenting an overview and evaluation of the composition of bodies to the German Bundestag

12.6. Report on the Federal Act on Gender Equality (Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz) to the German Bundestag

12.7. Evaluation of the act

Start Date: July 2017 (continuous since 2015)

End Date: June 2019

Context and Objectives

This commitment focuses on “[c]hanging corporate culture over the long term to get more women into leadership positions by giving the topic more prominence in public discourse in order to encourage companies to do more to ensure equal participation of women and men.”

Since 2012, in Germany, the share of women in managerial positions has more or less stalled. This percentage stood at around 29 percent in 2017. [46] The share of women in the German Parliament has declined from 36 percent in the 2013–2017 legislative period to 31 percent in the current one. [47] Reporting the overall share of women in leadership positions is recognized as an important indicator. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Reporting Framework (target 5.5, indicator 5.52) recognizes it. In Germany, this indicator’s importance is reflected through the Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and the Public Sector, which took effect in 2015. [48]

This commitment covers the reporting requirements of the aforementioned act. Its individual activities and milestones cover the entire sequence from reporting, to synthesis and public presentation, to eventual evaluation of the related practice and underlying legislation.

The milestones are verifiable. The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of transparency. It compiles publicly available information on gender parity in the federal administration in detail that goes beyond general SDG reporting requirements. For example, the commitment provides transparency on the gender-related composition of the federal administration. The commitment also entails reporting on and enabling the tracking of indicators that measure at least partially attributable outcomes of government action on creating more gender parity. Thus, it is relevant to access to information. The milestones that cover reporting activities (12.1, 12.2, 12.4, and 12.5), as well as the milestone evaluating the related act (12.7), directly correspond with the specific assessment and reporting requirements embedded in existing legislation. [49] The additional impact on opening government is rated as minor primarily because the related legal commitments were stipulated through a 2015 law, before Germany’s participation in OGP.

Next steps

The IRM researcher recommends complementing the commitment milestones with a set of performance targets and indicators attached to Milestones 12.1–12.6. The overall goal involves generating more visibility and awareness for gender parity issues. Thus, metrics around the visibility and uptake of the published information would make the milestones substantially more monitorable and ambitious. These metrics could include download numbers, media mentions, and benchmarking references in sustainability reports and other public organizational communication.

[46] Statistisches Bundesamt homepage, https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten/Indikatoren/QualitaetArbeit/QualitaetArbeit.html.

[47] https://www.bpb.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/dr2018_bf_pdf_ganzes_buch_online.pdf

[48] “Law for the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private Sector and the Public Services,” Bundesanzeiger Verlag, http://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav?startbk=Bundesanzeiger_BGBl&jumpTo=bgbl115s0642.pdf.

[49] Artikel 23 and Artikel 24, Gesetz für die Gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im Öffentlichen Dienst, FüPoG.

12. Monitoring the Share of Women and Men in Leadership Positions, Private Sector Bodies, and the Public Service

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“Regular monitoring reports on the development of the share of women and men in leadership positions and in private sector bodies and the public service in the framework of implementing the Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and the Public Sector (Gesetz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im öffentlichen Dienst, FüPoG).”

Milestones:

12.1 Information of the Federal Government about the development of the share of women and men in leadership positions, private and public sector bodies; Report to the Federal Statistical Office about the composition of the bodies in accordance with the Act on the Participation of the Federation in Appointments to Bodies (Gesetz über die Mitwirkung des Bundes an der Besetzung von Gremien, BGremBG)

12.2 Report to the German Bundestag about the share of women and men in leadership positions, private and public sector bodies

12.3 Generating an index of the share of women in supreme federal authorities (gender equality index)

12.4. Statistics about the share of women in the entire federal administration (gender equality statistics)

12.5 Presenting an overview and evaluation of the composition of bodies to the German Bundestag

12.6. Report on the Federal Act on Gender Equality (Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz) to the German Bundestag

12.7. Evaluation of the act

Start Date: July 2017 (continuous since 2015)

End Date: June 2019

The commitment focused on advancing the equal participation of men and women in public and private sector leadership positions as required by the 2015 Act on Equal Participation. [80] It set out a number of detailed monitoring and publication activities to enhance the transparency, awareness, and push for targeted remedies for persistent asymmetries in this area.

The implementation status is assessed as substantial by the end of the action plan period. An online presentation of aggregate indicators is up-to-date, customizable in a visually engaging manner, and periodically summarized by the Federal Statistical Office. [81] However, the envisaged annual public reporting (milestone 12.1) does not yet occur on a regular basis. The federal government reported to parliament on the gender gap in leadership positions in August 2017 (milestone 12.2). [82] The related parity index was compiled and published (milestone 12.3). [83] The evaluation of the underlying law, the 2015 Act on Equal Participation mentioned above (milestone 12.7), which was planned for May 2018, was under way as of November 2019 and estimated to be completed in 2020. This also affects the reporting to the federal parliament on the empirical situation and implementation of the related act (milestones 12.5 and 12.6) as both activities are linked to this evaluation. [84]

In sum, the implementation of the commitment has yielded a clearer empirical picture of gender disparities across different government functions that is unprecedented in its accessibility and user-friendliness due to the consolidated overview that it presents. This can facilitate targeted policy advocacy and reforms. However, the main improvements in transparency on the gender gap and the high level of detail included in the analysis predate the implementation of this commitment, as related data collection and reporting efforts have been ongoing since 2015 when the Act on Equal Participation entered into effect. As a result, this commitment contributed only marginally to improving transparency on gender parity in the federal administration compared to prior to the start of the action plan. Publishing the underlying data for milestone 12.4 and making it available for further analysis by civil society and the policy community could have further leveraged the benefits of this important transparency exercise.

The enhanced quality of transparency has not yet translated into consistent and sufficiently fast progress in narrowing the gender gap in the German administration. A rise of the share of women in ministerial positions (+5 percentage points since 2015 to 40 percent in 2019) [85] has been offset by a decline in the share of women in federal parliament (-5 percentage points since 2015 to 30 percent in 2019) , [86] and a decline in the share of women at the deputy minister level (Staatssekretaer) to only 18 percent across ministries. [87] Greater representation by gender thus remains an ongoing project. [88]

[80] Related law available at https://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav?startbk=Bundesanzeiger_BGBl&jumpTo=bgbl115s0642.pdf#__bgbl__%2F%2F*%5B%40attr_id%3D%27bgbl115s0642.pdf%27%5D__1580073104945

[81] BMFSFJ data, https://www.bmfsfj.de/quote/daten.html

[82] Bericht der Bundesregierung über den Frauen- und Männeranteil an Führungsebenen und in Gremien der Privatwirtschaft und des öffentlichen Dienstes, Drucksache 18/13333, http://dipbt.bundestag.de/doc/btd/18/133/1813333.pdf

[83] 2018 edition of the index, https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Staat/Oeffentlicher-Dienst/Publikationen/Downloads-Oeffentlicher-Dienst/gleichstellungsindex-5799901187004.pdf;jsessionid=7254121397B5846359ECC40C94B71D9F.internet721?__blob=publicationFile

[84] Federal Chancellery, First National Action Plan 2017–2019, Final Report by the German Federal Government, p 39, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Germany_End-Term_Self-Assessment_2017-2019_EN.pdf

[85] OECD outlook 2019

[86] Ibid.

[87] BMFSFJ data, https://www.bmfsfj.de/quote/daten.html

[88] For a more comprehensive analysis of the gender gap, WEF Gender Gap Report 2020, https://www.weforum.org/reports/gender-gap-2020-report-100-years-pay-equality