Women are still underrepresented in local councils, metropolitan executives and mayoral offices, a new study shows.
Women are still the exception in top positions in local government.
Wolfilser / stock.adobe.com
It is true that women are gradually gaining positions at the top of local politics and public administration. In terms of population share, however, they still have a lot to catch up with. The slight progress can be selectively seen, but structurally the pace of change is “too slow”.
This is the result of the fifth study of the Heinrich Böll Foundation aimed at women in managerial positions in large cities. The current study titled “Representation of women in local politics” of the prof. dr. Lars Holtkamp and Dr. Elke Wiechmann of the University of Hagen. For this purpose, 77 large cities with over 100,000 inhabitants were examined. Data were weighted using a gender index.
maximum rate of 45 percent
According to this, cities such as Offenbach, Göttingen and Aachen, with 45% women in the city council, perform quite well, Rostock, Bochum and Mülheim an der Ruhr bringing up the rear with around 35% women each. Compared to 2017, municipalities such as Potsdam (41%), Ludwigshafen (31%) and Karlsruhe (39%) have caught up. In municipalities such as Dortmund (-16 percent), Rostock (minus 12 percent) and Erlangen (minus 12 percent), however, the proportion of women has decreased.
Female mayors are still rare
“Overall, it can be argued that women – measured by their share of the population – are still underrepresented in local parliaments and city leadership positions, and also severely underrepresented in the mayor’s office. Only nine out of 77 city leaders or l “11.7% are women. With the exception of female mayors, there is slight progress in women’s representation”, is the conclusion of the study.
Theoretically 40 years of waiting
For the Heinrich Böll Foundation, one thing is certain: “Without a binding quota, it would theoretically take around 40 years before there was equal representation of men and women in city council mandates,” calculates Sabine Drewes for the Heinrich Böll Foundation. You thus indicate the most important actors in the change of political representation, the parties.
More women on the wards
The fifth gender ranking of major German cities since 2008 shows compared to previous studies: the most noticeable improvement from 18.5% to over 30% was in departments or at councilor level. The percentage of women on the Board increased from 32.8% to 37.3%.
Especially common green women
How do parties fare in terms of the percentage of women in big cities? The Böll study shows: the CSU has reached 42 percent, the Greens have exceeded their 50 percent quota, the left has just reached the 50 percent quota, the SPD 40 percent. The CDU reaches about 30 percent in the big cities. Without a quota or quorum, the FDP reaches about the level of the CDU, the AfD has a very low percentage of women, just over 13%.
