Germany has brought a new legislation that states that companies listed under its government must mandatorily include women on their executive boards. This milestone law came to power after agreement by both houses of the country’s coalition government on Wednesday (January 6).
It is to be noted that several attempts to close this gender gap voluntarily had failed, following which this bill was proposed in the Parliament, and got passed after a bit of deliberation. The government added that a further quota would also be introduced for “corporations under public law”, such as health insurance companies and pension and accident insurance institutions as well as the Federal Employment Agency.
The law sends “a very strong signal”, Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht told reporters, urging corporations to “take advantage of the opportunity presented by highly qualified women”. “We can show that Germany is on the way to becoming a modern society fit for the future,” Family Affairs Minister Franziska Giffey was quoted saying in a report.
Despite being one of the world’s biggest economies, Germany has always struggled with equal representation for women in the workplace. There have been jokes about how a woman can much rather hold the highest office in the country as opposed to equal representation at a run-of-the-mill workplace. This new bill now dictates that management boards with more than three members must include at least one woman, reversing a voluntary system that critics argue has failed to achieve the required shift towards gender equality.