Germany's digital industry association Bitkom has called on the country's digital companies to noticeably increase the proportion of women in their workforces. "The figures are alarming," Bitkom's Vice President Sabine Bendiek said at a press conference held by the association on Monday. "We need women in IT," said Bendiek, who is also responsible for human resources development on the executive board of German software company SAP. Approximately 1.2 million people work in the industry, of whom it is estimated one quarter are women.
According to a study by Bitkom, more than one in 10 companies (11 percent) in the industry has no women on staff at all. In 76 percent, the proportion of women is less than 25 percent, and in only 7 percent of companies is it between 26 and 50 percent. The smaller the company, the lower the proportion of women, according to the study, which involved a representative survey of more than 500 companies in the digital sector in Germany. According to the study, the larger the company, the greater the proportion of women. However, women are underrepresented at management level in all company sizes. According to the study, 49 percent of the companies surveyed have no women at all in top management.
Bendiek emphasized that companies are harming themselves with the low quota of women: "Mixed teams are extremely important for the success of companies. And we rely on women to address the shortage of skilled workers and ensure sustainable growth." There is no simple solution to overcome inequality, she said. Equality between women and men must always be a management task, she added. In addition to promoting women, the main issue is to make it possible to reconcile family and career.
At the Bitkom press conference, Anna Christmann, a member of the Bundestag representing the Greens, referred to the "#SheTransformsIT" initiative, which was launched in 2020 to coincide with the German government's digital summit. The fact that the proportion of women is too low, she said, means that innovation potential and the opportunity for fair digitalization are being lost.
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