There’s an executive gender gap in Germany according to new research, which shows that women are still finding it difficult to achieve top jobs in the country’s leading companies.

The Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) reports that only 42 of the 1,721 executive committee members at Germany’s top 600 listed companies are women. This corresponds to just 2.4 per cent. KIT has also found that just 8.2 per cent of those sitting on boards of directors are female.

The project’s academic leader, Professor Lindstädt, from KIT, told The Local newspaper: “Our results really surprised us. We expected a low level of women in these top positions, but had been unsure of the degree of gender difference. Even more shocking than the low proportion was the fact that, over the last ten years, significant change has not been made.”

In 1998, just 1.2 per cent of women sat on executive committees for the companies monitored. 

Professor Lindstädt added: “In Scandinavia in particular, and indeed the US, they have significantly more women on their executive committees than Germany. Perhaps one reason for this might be the fact that women who are successful in these economies face less social criticism than German women, who confront, for example, accusations that they are abandoning their maternal duty.”