The arguments for women in top management from an investor’s point of view sounds quite reasonable: Women are less likely than men to suffer self-esteem. They also do not suffer from activism, so make fewer transactions and thus save costs. Furthermore, bringing new ideas and perspectives as well as more empathy for the staff and a family-friendly attitude towards the needs of employees are other positive effects correlated with female managers.
Posts Tagged ‘Frauen in Führungspositionen’
Women in Business
Gender is no argument for business success
Thursday, November 17th, 2011 by Astrid BostenWomen in Business
Zu mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen verpflichtet
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Am Montag, dem 17. Oktober 2011, haben die Personalvorstände der 30 Dax-Unternehmen bei einer gemeinsamen Konferenz in Berlin mit den Bundesministern Schröder (Familie), von der Leyen (Arbeit) und Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Justiz) eine Selbstverpflichtung zur weiteren Erhöhung des Anteils von Frauen in Führungspositionen abgegeben und erläutert, welche konkreten Ziele sie sich dazu gesetzt haben. Auch Henkel war dabei mit Vorstandsmitglied Kathrin Menges vertreten. Sie erläutert in diesem Interview die konkreten Ziele und Maßnahmen von Henkel.
Frage: Frau Menges, heute haben die Personalvorstände der 30 DAX-Unternehmen in Berlin konkrete Ziele für mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen vorgestellt. Die Unternehmen verpflichten sich dazu, den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen in den nächsten Jahren deutlich zu erhöhen und bekennen sich zur Chancengleichheit von Frauen und Männern. Henkel hat die Selbstverpflichtung auch unterzeichnet. Warum?
Kathrin Menges: Im Rahmen des Diversity Managements, also der Förderung der Vielfalt im Unternehmen, konzentrieren wir uns bei Henkel vor allem auf die Bereiche Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter. Für uns hat die Erhöhung des Anteils von Frauen in Führungspositionen schon seit langem eine hohe Priorität. Hier haben wir in den vergangenen Jahren große Fortschritte gemacht. Den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen – bei uns sind das alle Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im außertariflichen Bereich – konnten wir seit 2005 jährlich um rund einen Prozentpunkt auf knapp 30 Prozent erhöhen. Insofern war es für uns nur konsequent, diese Initiative zu unterstützen. Gemeinsam setzen wir auf die freiwillige Selbstverpflichtung als den richtigen und nachhaltigen Weg. In Zukunft wollen wir unsere Anstrengungen bei der Förderung von Frauen in Führungspositionen sogar noch ausbauen. Unser Ziel ist es, auf Konzernebene die jährliche Zuwachsrate zu erhöhen: von einem Prozentpunkt auf durchschnittlich bis zu zwei Prozentpunkte.
Frage: Sie verpflichten sich dazu, den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen zu erhöhen, vermeiden aber gleichzeitig die Festlegung auf eine feste Zielgröße. Wie passt das zusammen?
Kathrin Menges: Wir setzen uns seit langem dafür ein, den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen zu erhöhen. Wir nehmen schon heute unter den DAX-Unternehmen eine führende Stellung ein und wollen uns von dieser Position aus weiter verbessern. Unsere Ziele sind ambitioniert und konkret, wie ich an dem folgenden Beispiel erläutern kann: Ausgehend von einem aktuellen Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen von 30 Prozent und einem jährlichen Zuwachs von durchschnittlich 1,5 Prozentpunkten würden wir in sieben Jahren, also im Jahr 2018, bei rund 40 Prozent liegen. Auch damit wären wir unter den DAX-Unternehmen in der Spitzengruppe. Uns geht es aber nicht um eine fixe Quote, sondern darum, den Weg zu eröffnen für mehr Frauen in Top-Positionen. Das kann und darf aber keine starre Quote sein. Henkel will bei jeder Stellenbesetzung den am besten geeigneten Kandidaten finden. Bei der Auswahlentscheidung zählen allein Kompetenz und Eignung – unabhängig von Geschlecht, Alter oder Nationalität.
Frage: Mit welchen konkreten Maßnahmen wollen Sie diese Ziele erreichen?
Kathrin Menges: Unsere Zielvorgaben sind für unterschiedliche Bereiche im Unternehmen differenziert und umfassen sowohl quantitative als auch qualitative Ziele. Wir haben gemeinsam mit unserem Diversity Management und allen Unternehmensbereichen und Funktionen drei wesentliche Handlungsfelder identifiziert. Es geht dabei erstens um den Anteil weiblicher Kandidaten bei Neueinstellungen und Beförderungen, zweitens um moderne Arbeitszeitmodelle, die Frauen und Familien eine höhere Flexibilität ermöglichen sollen, und drittens um besondere Karriereentwicklungspläne, die den Erfordernissen von Frauen Rechnung tragen.
Zum Beispiel achten wir bei Beförderungen oder der Besetzung von Führungspositionen darauf, dass unter den letzten drei Kandidaten mindestens eine Frau ist. Außerdem werden wir die Angebote zur besseren Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Karriere weiter ausbauen. Dazu gehört auch die Verbesserung der Betreuungssituation von Kindern, wenn dies durch die staatlichen Einrichtungen nicht oder nur unzureichend gewährleistet wird. Des Weiteren wollen wir weg von einer Präsenzkultur, die gerade Frauen und Familien vor Herausforderungen stellt.
Women in Business
VICTRESS DAY 2011 – „On the Move”
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 by Astrid BostenMixed Leadership Teams of both, women and men are on everyone’s lips. Since 2005, the VICTRESS initiative advocates mixed management teams in the economy. One action field of this initiative is the improvement of the share of female leaders in top leadership positions in Germany and the promotion of a change in society – away from outdated stereotypes to new role models.
To value the progress economy and society have been making, the initiators invite for an annually VICTRESS DAY that includes a conference as well as a gala in the evening. On August 29, this year’s event took place in Berlin held themed “On the Move”. The focus of the conference, with introductory speeches, panel discussions and workshops is “change”. What has been changed? How do companies react to these changes? How can Diversity be consciously perceived? Which effect has communication and how important is it? These questions have been answered by people from a wide range – from managers to coaches and TV presenters.
In the panel discussion “Diversity as a success factor”, Henkel’s Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Markus Dinslacken, participated beside Aletta Gräfin von Hardenberg, Diversity Charter Germany, Peter Green, Coca Cola, Ursula Sanio, Daimler AG, and Christine Keiner, SAP AG. They proved that Diversity Management is not only an image factor but a business necessity in the 21st century to stay in businesses.
During the gala event in the evening, the VICTRESS Awards 2011 were awarded. A distinguished jury, since 2010 also including Tina Müller, Henkel’s Corporate Senior Vice President for the hair cosmetics, skin and oral care segments of Henkel and VICTRESS GLASSBREAKER Award winner in 2009, have been chosen the this year’s winners. Henkel has already won the Corporate VICTRESS Award in 2008. Again, five nominees were honored in the categories: „VICTRESS Emotion Award”, “ VICTRESS Corporate Award “, „VICTRESS Role Model Award“, „VICTRESS Social Impact Award“ and „VICTRESS Glassbreaker Award“.
Women in Business
Women’s Quota in summer high / Frauenquote im Sommerhoch
Thursday, August 4th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Here we go again. As a proven remedy to bridge the summer slump during the summer break of political news, the women’s quota discussion provides the same entertainment factor as it already did at the beginning of the year.
Furthermore, 95 percent of women and at least 88 percent of men believe that Germany already has a sufficient talent pool to occupy such top management positions with domestic women.
In contrast to that, the situation was quite different at the beginning of this year. According to a survey published by the German magazine “Stern” in February 2011, only 51 percent of all respondents argued for a women’s quota, 45 percent even refused to it.
Even more significant was the rejection of the women’s quota by Germany’s top managers both, female and male. According to the results of a research made by “Psephos”, which was commissioned by the German magazine “Handelsblatt”, the majority of 57 percent of the 500 respondents militate “in principle against a women’s quota”. Although they would be most strongly concerned by regulations especially the under 40 year-olds rejected massively any kind of quota with a proportion of two thirds.
With this restrained euphoria at the beginning of the year Germany was fully in the trend of the most neighboring countries. In average, almost seven out of ten of the questioned employees opposed a mandatory percentage of women. In terms of openness towards a women’s quota Norway and Belgium are the most forward-looking countries. Denmark showed the greatest reservation about regulations (eight out of ten respondents rejected a quota).
So, the tug of war goes on. One Survey trumps the other and one argument ruffs the counter-argument. An entertaining parlor game for not-entertaining summer breaks. The only spoilsport could be the EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding who beckons with the Joker of a European quota regulation.
What do you think? Are you in favor of a quota or not?
Women in Business
The Principle of Arrogance / Das Arroganz-Prinzip
Monday, August 1st, 2011 by Astrid BostenAnd who wants to be arrogant? At least, not me. That’s why I – consciously arrogant – turned away from Peter Modler’s book “The Principle of Arrogance” (“Das Arroganz-Prinzip”). This was a reading I – as a matter of principle – would never read.
But then I had the accidental opportunity to experience Dr. Modler’s “Principle of Arrogance” on my own on the occasion of an EWMD (European Women’s Management Development) evening event, and I condescend to register in this evening.
And, what can I say? I was confirmed in my assumptions. When the 100 women entered the room, Mr. Modler seemed not even to take any notice of them, and looked – apparently somehow bored – at the even more boring carpet pattern of the conference room.
However, as soon as the introductory words had been spoken by Vera Sandrock, EWMD representative of the region Rhein-Ruhr, life returned to the speaker: And a very entertaining, ingenious and instructive life I have to admit.
That men are from Mars and women are from Venus, we already know for a long time. But did you know that men communicate in a vertical way and women in a horizontal way? This statement is as true as quickly comprehensible: While for men it is crucial to find a hierarchical order among themselves (and thereby it is only important to get a place in line and not to be the first), women struggle for integration and inclusion of all attendees in their conversation. Comprehensible so far? I think so.
But does this finding already harmonize the everyday work relationship between women and men? Perhaps. But supplementing this basic finding with the Olympic winners’ rostrum of different communication styles, the picture becomes more complete. On position three on the rostrum comes the intellectual and verbal communication style, position two is reserved for verbal but not intellectual communication and the winner of all communication styles is the so called “MOVE TALK”.
The bottom line from this Olympic ranking of communication styles is: While women are perfect contributors to an intellectual and verbal conversation, men dominate naturally-talented positions two and one. So, what to do, ladies? Climb the Olympic winners’ rostrum, defeat the “adversaries” with their own weapons, learn to communicate not only on a verbal and intellectual way but also take advantage of your body language and learn the MOVE TALK!
But what does arrogance have in common with that all? To find an answer to this I cordially advise the reading of Peter Modler’s book “The Principle of Arrogance”. Or even better: try to experience him in one of his seminars or key note speeches.
For those who are interested in the “Principle of Arrogance”, Deborah Tannen’s book “You Just Don’t Understand:Women and Men in Conversation” .might be a helpful reading in English language.
Diversity & Inclusion
Summer Fairy Tale or Nightmare? / Sommermärchen oder Albtraum?
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 by Astrid BostenNormally fairy tales include both - really shady figures and some kind of fairy godmothers… Our fairy tale starts like this…
Once upon a time there was a German “Sommermärchen” (Summer Fairy Tale) and the broken dream of winning the Soccer World Cup in our home country. Today – five years later – this dream could become true. But one little thing has changed: this year the protagonists are fairy godmothers: Germany’s football ladies are host and defending champion and one of the favorites of this year’s Women’s Soccer World Cup.
Outstanding 18 million people watched on TV the opening game last Sunday. This exceeded all expectations and also contradicts to every skeptics and opponents of a Women’s Soccer Cup.
If we look back over history we see difficulties already at the beginnings.
While Women’s Soccer was appreciated in other countries in the 1920s, German sports clubs did not accept any women so that they had to build up their own clubs.
After the German Men’s National Team won the World Cup in 1954 again an intensive discussion began and ended with an official ban of women’s soccer in Germany. The reasons for the ban sound strange and outmoded. “This kind of martial arts is foreign to the nature of women”, “… body and soul will suffer damage …” or the “exhibition of the body injures propriety and modesty”, are some examples of the given reasons. However, similar undertones could be detected in today’s statements of opponents, although they use modern wording.
But the women did not care about these bans. Until 1963, there were up to 70 unofficial international matches. Economic interests, especially the expectation of profit pushed the founding of associations till the ban was annulated officially in 1970. When the goal of a woman was awarded for the goal of the month in a famous German television sport’s show the Women’s Football again became more and more interesting for the public.
Despite numerous sporting successes (7 times European Champion, 2 times World Champion for example) the Women’s Football is not as respected as the male counterpart.
The parallels between women in the football business and women in leadership are obvious. Both groups are predominated by gender stereotyping. Respect and appreciation is often only a result of hard work. In football as well as in the topic of women in leadership economic interests and a growing public perception accelerate the progress.
Let’s hope that the existing wave of enthusiasm for Women’s Football goes beyond the World Cup and will have a spillover effect on both sides. At least, there are some men who like it: http://www.einslive.de/magazin/sport/2011/06/110621_frauenwm_pro_contra.jsp [DE]
Women in Business
Henkel at women & work Exhibition-Congress in Bonn / Henkel bei der women & work in Bonn
Friday, May 13th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Tomorrow, May 14 the women & work, Germany’s biggest Exhibition-Congress for women takes place at World Congress Center in Bonn. The event is targeted at career oriented women and starts at 10 a.m. and lasts until 7 p.m. 60 well-known companies participate in this event and – of course – Henkel’s amongst them.
An attractive program of company presentations, workshops and panel discussions cover this event designed for women.
And once you’re there it would be our pleasure to welcome you at our stand No. 35. Enjoy and see you there! [DE]
Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Business
Third WoMen’s Networking Day at Henkel / Dritter WoMen’s Networking Day bei Henkel
Thursday, April 7th, 2011 by Astrid BostenOn April 5, 2011 Henkel’s female networking group “Women in Leadership” invited to their third WoMen’s Networking Day at Henkel’s headquarters in Düsseldorf. Special about this year’s event was that for the first time our male leaders were invited to attend the event too. Thus the motto for the invitation addressed to our female leaders was ”Ladies’ choice – Bring your boss”.
More than 220 participants attended the Networking Day, among them a good proportion of men. Colleagues at different Henkel locations around the world additionally had the opportunity to join the WoMen’s Networking Day via live stream.
Kathrin Menges, Global Head of Human Resources, gave the first introductory speech about Gender Diversity @ Henkel. This speech was followed by a “Walk around Womenomics” – a speech given by the bestseller author Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. Avivah already was our guest speaker at our last year’s event and left us with the homework to start the dialogue with men. Asking Avivah, what our school grade was for achieving to bring such a good share of men, she answered “definitely an A”… Good to hear!
A panel discussion on “I did it my way – Role Models are telling there individual success story” with seven Henkel leaders (men and women) followed next. The panel talked about individual success stories, milestones in their lives and decision making processes.
A premier highlight and innovation at the same time was our Henkel twitterwall – an offer that gave the audience the opportunity to actively participate in the panel discussions by tweeting their questions, comments and arguments to a public wall. Thereby the diversity of minds, thoughts and perspectives were actively included into the ongoing discussion.
The panel discussion was followed by a presentation of our new Global Diversity & Inclusion Director, Markus Dinslacken, who introduced the consultancy offer of our Global Diversity & Inclusion department that is meant to enhance Diversity within the different departments at Henkel.
After a short break the participants were invited to join diverse workshops in which topics such as “Recruitment & Assessment Processes”, “Networking & Support”, “Flexible Working Opportunities” or “Reconciling Career & Family” were discussed.
The final item on the agenda was a panel discussion on the subject of “Women’s Quota – Necessity or Constraint”. Claudia Nemat, Managing Partner and Director for the High Tech Sector of McKinsey gave the introductory by presenting the key findings of McKinsey’s “Women Matter” studies.
The panelist for the quota discussion were Henkel’s CEO Kasper Rorsted, our Global Head of Human Ressources, Kathrin Menges and Bruno Piacenza, Board Member at Henkel and responsible for the Laundry- and Homecare business unit. Additionally we were happy to welcome two external guests: Regine Stachelhaus, who is member of the board of eon and Claudia Nemat. Their unanimously belief was: No necessity for quota but a huge necessity for change!
For this discussion again the twitterwall served as third party moderation by and for the audience.
After a half day of information and interaction the third WoMen’s Networking Day ended with an informal get-together. All participants were satisfied with the agenda and – even more important – the gender mix. [DE] 
(more…)
Women in Business
Economy sets targets for women in leadership positions / Wirtschaft setzt sich Ziele für mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen
Friday, April 1st, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Yesterday, on March 30, 2011 there was a high-level-meeting of politicians and labor directors of Germany’s DAX 30 companies . The goal of this meeting was to get a mandatory statement from the representatives of business how they want to improve the share of female leaders.
Before the meeting, the opinions stayed divided as from the beginning of this year: Germany’s Minister of Family Affairs, Kristina Schröder, insisted on her “Flexi Quota” idea, while Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s minister of labor, affirmed that in her opinion a women’s quota is the only solution.
The result of this meeting was an extensive declaration that was developed and published together with all DAX-30 companies. Here some key aspects:
- The companies are going to define goals concerning the enhancement of women in of the total workforce as well as of management positions. They are going to define a time line report the goals, actions and achieved goals.
- The companies are going to assure equal opportunities in personnel selection and development.
- The companies are going to sensitize their managers for the advancement of female careers.
- The companies are going to convey a work time culture that answers the demanding of employees in a higher degree.
- The companies are going to offer possibilities for a better reconcilability of family and career to women as well as to men.
- The companies are going to lobby for the usage of the whole spectrum of jobs by all employees.
- The companies are demanding a better infrastructure from the federal government and local governments, for example more childcare facilities and all-day schools. [DE]
Women in Business
Powerwomen in Dialogue / Starke Frauen im Gespräch
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
The starting event of our internal women’s network at Henkel “Women in Leadership” (WiL) in 2011 was the high-light-event at the same time: the round-table discussion with Simone Bagel-Trah our chairwoman of the shareholder committee and of the supervisory board at Henkel.
So far, she is the first and only woman who is chairwoman of the supervisory board at a DAX-30-company. There were 120 women attending this event which was organized by the working group “communications” of the WiL. Anneliese Wilsch-Irrgang who is the leader of the department Regional R&D Emerging Markets (U-W) was the moderator of the event and she succeeded in having an open and amicable talk to Simone Bagel-Trah. One of the thematic priorities was e.g. the new models for flexible working hours, which are oriented towards today’s rhythm of life of women and men. The participants discussed different concepts which included different part-time working possibilities, too. In the course of the two hour event a lively discussion about mentoring-programs, training- and coaching-measures, flexible working hours, valuation systems as well as different management styles was rapidly emerging. “The participants were delighted with the open atmosphere of the discussion”, this was the impression of the organizers at the end of the event.
Exchange of experience for women
There are monthly meetings and different events which are organized by the network “Women in Leadership (WiL). Within these conferences several topics are discussed such as career management, skills, reconcilement of family and work, or models of flexible working hours. Thus, experiences can be changed and there is the opportunity of getting an insight in other business units and functions.
