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Good practice Imported

Germany's Gender Quota Law (FüPoG) — Mandatory 30% Female Representation on Supervisory Boards

Germany · Berlin · See the Germany profile · See the Berlin profile

Evidence: Quasi-experimental Top 17% 89/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Germany's 2015 law set a binding 30% gender quota on the supervisory boards of listed, fully co-determined firms; a decade on, women's board share nearly doubled, though a rigorous study found no matching gain in board-chair positions.

19.9%
Female supervisory-board share, economy-wide, 2015 (2015)
37.5%
Female supervisory-board share, economy-wide, a decade later
38.6%
Female supervisory-board share at quota-bound firms
30% % of supervisory board seats
Statutory minimum quota
100-108 companies
Listed companies bound by the quota
Germany's Gender Quota Law (FüPoG) — Mandatory 30% Female Representation on Supervisory Boards Germany's Gender Quota Law (FüPoG) — Mandatory 30% Female Representation on Supervisory Boards

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (statutory mandate); evaluated by DIW Berlin, monitored by FidAR e.V.
Period
2015–present (FüPoG I 2015; FüPoG II 2021)
Keywords
corporate governance, labour market regulation, gender policy

Context

Germany's Fuhrungspositionen-Gesetz (FuPoG), effective May 2015, imposed a binding 30% minimum gender quota on the supervisory boards of roughly 100-108 listed, fully co-determined companies; a follow-up law, FuPoG II (2021), extended obligations to management boards.

Objectives

The law aims to raise women's representation in senior corporate leadership through a binding statutory quota rather than voluntary corporate pledges.

Activities

Bound firms must fill at least 30% of supervisory-board seats with the underrepresented gender under Section 96(2) of the Stock Corporation Act, while FuPoG II requires larger management boards to include at least one woman.

Results

A quasi-experimental analysis exploiting the staggered rollout found a clear rise in women's supervisory-board share at bound firms, but no measurable effect on who holds the board chair or on board size; a decade on, women's share nearly doubled economy-wide and reached 38.6% at bound firms.

Conclusions

The quota changed board composition without disturbing the top leadership hierarchy, and has become a partial template for the EU's binding Women on Boards Directive.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (statutory oversight), DIW Berlin (independent evaluation), FidAR e.V. (monitoring association)

Conditions for success

  • a binding statutory quota embedded in corporate law rather than a voluntary pledge
  • independent monitoring and tracking by FidAR and DIW Berlin
  • reinforcing follow-up legislation (FuPoG II) extending scope to management boards

Common failure modes

  • no measurable effect on board-chair appointments or board size, i.e. the quota changed composition without changing the top leadership hierarchy

Where it fits

Governance type
national statutory regulation
Scale
national (listed, co-determined companies)
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

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Data sources

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