Germany's lower house of parliament passed legislation on Friday requiring major companies to allot 30 percent of seats on nonexecutive boards to women, and a new survey found that women remain grossly underrepresented in business life.
Although Germany has been led by a woman, Angela Merkel, since 2005, there is not a single female chief executive among the 30 largest firms on Germany's blue-chip DAX index.
The new quotas, due to come into force in 2016, will affect more than 100 listed companies that have employee representation on their supervisory boards. A further 3,500 medium-size companies will have to determine their own quota for executive and supervisory board seats.