In the business year 2019/20, the percentage of female executives was about 12.5%, the same as in the previous year. One woman has been appointed to a divisional management position since the business year 2013/14.
Within the scope of internal leadership development efforts, great importance is placed on continuing to increase the percentage of female participants. The Group is trying to ensure for this reason that women are represented at each training level of the Leadership Development Program (“value program”). Of the total of 198 participants in the business year 2019/20, 16.7% were women. This means that the percentage of women has risen yet again compared with the previous year (14.1%) and that it surpasses the percentage of women in the Group on the whole.
Overall, the percentage of women in the voestalpine Group in the business year 2019/20 was 14.7% (previous year: 14.4%). There are industry-specific, historical, and cultural reasons for this percentage—which remains low compared with other industries. In the public’s consciousness, the image of a steel and technology Group still conforms to the image of the heavy industry, with the result that broad-based recruitment of female employees is a challenging undertaking. Nonetheless, the percentage of women in the voestalpine Group among salaried employees up to the age of 30 is now around 38.5%; despite all of our efforts, however, women still only account for a mere 7.5% among workers.
None of the Group companies have explicit “female quotas.” Instead, the voestalpine Group strives to raise the percentage of women in the Group at all levels in the long term through appropriate measures. This includes a number of activities, some of which are country specific, e.g., participation in the “Girls’ Day,” the specific advancement of women in technical trades requiring apprenticeships, and/or boosting the hiring of female graduates of technical schools and universities. In addition, the establishment and expansion of in-house child care facilities and/or collaborations with external facilities is being accelerated. Such facilities and collaborations can be found at the Group’s plants in Linz and Leoben/Donawitz, Austria, for instance. As a result of these efforts, by now women are also employed in leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated, technical areas of the company. Women also hold executive positions in the financial, legal, strategic, communications, and human resources departments in a number of Group companies. For example, “Legal and Compliance” in two of the four divisions is headed by women.
As part of the annual human resources report, data on the percentage of women in executive positions is regularly collected and analyzed based on qualifications and training programs for the purpose of monitoring the long-term impact of all measures.
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