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Female leadership representation in Germany

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2026-10-19 15:56 UTC → 2026-10-20 06:21 UTC · added ~~removed~~

In North Rhine-Westphalia, women held 28.9% of approximately 376,000 executive roles in 2025. While this represents a slight increase from 26.0% in 2015, a disparity exists in working models; women comprise 64.9% of part-time executives but only 24.7% of full-time executives. Representation also varies by age, peaking at 34% to 35% for those under 44 and dropping to 23.5% for those aged 55 and older. On a national level, data from the German Federal Statistical Office and Eurostat shows that women occupied 30.3% of management positions in Germany in 2025. This figure remains below the European Union average of 35.9%. Although Germany experienced a 1.0 percentage point increase in female leadership over the last ~~decade, this~~ decade—rising from 29.3% in 2015 to 30.3% in 2025—this growth rate lags behind the EU-wide increase of 4.0 percentage points. This disparity is highlighted by the fact that women make up 47.1% of the German workforce, a figure slightly above the EU average of 46.5%. ~~In Sweden, the gap between the female share of the workforce and the female share of management is notably narrow at 3.2 percentage points, whereas Germany faces a 16.8 percentage point gap.~~ Within the EU, Sweden leads with a 44.4% share of female leaders, followed by Latvia (43.8%) and Estonia (43.1%). Austria reported 37.2% of women in top positions, while Poland showed high representation at 42.5%. Cyprus reported the lowest share at 25.9%, with Italy (28.6%) and the Netherlands (30%) also trailing the EU average. In contrast to management roles, women held 42.6% of government seats as of the third quarter of 2026.

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