Quota helps

Proportion of women at board level still very low

Women are still underrepresented in the boardrooms of domestic companies. The management of the largest companies will still be in the hands of men in 2025, according to the current "Frauen. Management. Report" published by the Chamber of Labor (AK). The situation is better on the supervisory boards of large and listed companies: Since the introduction of a binding 30 percent quota in 2018, the proportion of female supervisory bodies has risen from 22.4 to 38 percent.

Of the 200 companies with the highest turnover in Austria with a total of 610 management positions, 86.2% are held by men. Of the top 200 companies, only 29 have at least 40 percent women on their management boards.

Higher proportion in state-related companies
According to the AK report, women are particularly underrepresented on the boards of listed companies. Of the 218 board members, only 28 - or 12.8 percent - are women. And in 10 of the 69 listed companies, the supervisory and management boards are purely male-dominated.

In the ATX companies, only 15.5 percent of board positions are held by women. However, this puts Austria at the bottom of the international league table. Across Europe, only Luxembourg is lower at 10 percent, while the EU average is just under a quarter (24.7 percent). The proportion of women in German DAX companies is 25.7 percent.

The situation in Germany is better in state-owned companies: The proportion of women on supervisory boards is 51.4 percent. And 22.4 percent of managing director positions are held by women.

Austria lags far behind internationally
In the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap, Austria is only ranked 67th out of 146 countries when it comes to the economic participation of women. A comparison of incomes puts Austria in 97th place.

The situation could improve with the implementation of the EU directive "Ensuring a balanced representation of women and men among the directors of listed companies and related measures". Following the initiation of infringement proceedings, as the directive has not yet been transposed into national law, a draft has now been sent for review, noted the AK.