The proportion of female executives in Germany remains low

The proportion of women in top positions in Germany remains below the EU average: Less than a third of the chief positions were female in 2025. Sweden remains the leader in the EU comparison. Women in leadership positions continue to be under-represented in Germany. This is shown by new figures from the Federal Statistical Office: Although almost as many women are employed as men in this country, only 30.3 percent of management positions were filled by women last year - less than a third. The figure is thus well below the average in the European Union of 35.9 percent. The frontrunner in the EU comparison was also Sweden in 2025 – with a headcount of 44.4%. Comparatively high quotas were also recorded by Latvia (43.8 percent) and Estonia (43.1 percent). Fewer female leaders than in Germany were in Italy (28.6 percent) and in the Netherlands (30 percent). The bottom was Cyprus with 25.9 percent. Few female bosses, despite high female employment, see the development in Germany slightly upwards in the long term: In a ten-year comparison, the proportion of female leaders increased by one percentage point, while it increased by four percentage points in the EU average. According to the statisticians, the low proportion of female bosses in Germany is particularly striking, as women make up a high proportion of all working people. This was 47.1 percent in 2025, slightly above the EU average of 46.5 percent. In Austria, for example, the proportion of female managerial positions at 37.2 percent was significantly higher than in Germany – and this with a similar proportion of women among all working people (47.5 percent). Management positions include statisticians, the management of small enterprises, the management or divisional management of large enterprises and management positions in the administrative service. A different picture can be seen in politics: In the Federal Government, the proportion of women in Germany is greater than in the management levels. In the third quarter of 2026, according to data from the European Institute for Gender Equality, women accounted for 42.6 percent of government members in this country. Germany was thus well above the EU average of 33.5 percent. Finland has the largest proportion of women in government with 56.7 percent, followed closely by Denmark with 52.4 percent. The Czech Republic has the smallest proportion of women in the governments with 12.5 percent.