Friday, March 8, 2024, 12:20 p.m
75 percent of health staff1 and 47 percent of medical staff2 in German hospitals are female. However, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. Christoph Radbruch, Chairman of the German Evangelical Hospital Association (DEKV): “In Protestant hospitals, the proportion of women in management is 17 percent, which is one percentage point below the proportion of women on the boards of DAX companies.3 In order to master future challenges, “We should continue to advance equality in Protestant hospitals and more women must freely and equally assume responsibility for the fair and successful design of our hospitals.”
Too few women in leadership positions
In many industries, women are underrepresented in leadership positions. In hospitals, too, management was predominantly in the hands of men in 2020, at 83 percent.4 Overall, the proportion of women in management positions in hospitals has even decreased slightly since the last data collection “Women in the Healthcare Industry” in 2015. In the nursing department, women are most often employed in a position at the top management level, at 53 percent. 17 percent4.5 of women work as managing directors and 14 percent as medical managers.4 In the middle management positions, however, the gender ratio is almost balanced, so that more women could be available to fill top management positions in the future.4 “We have to take advantage of the opportunity to attract well-qualified women to leadership positions. A good work-life balance is certainly a prerequisite for this. But we also have to recognize potential and give young talent the chance to grow into leadership positions,” says Radbruch.
Sources:
Mixed Leadership Barometer PricewaterhouseCoopers. Women in the healthcare industry, Berlin 2020 DEKV 2023
The German Evangelical Hospital Association (DEKV) represents one in nine German hospitals with 199 Protestant clinics at 273 locations. The Protestant hospitals care for more than 2 million inpatients and more than 3.5 million outpatients every year. That’s more than one in 10 fully inpatient patients nationwide. With over 123,000 employees and a turnover of more than €10 billion, they are an important economic factor. The DEKV is the industry association of Protestant hospitals and a member of the Evangelical Work for Diakonie and Development eV as well as the board and presidium of the German Hospital Association. The DEKV is particularly committed to a future-oriented and innovative hospital policy with a variety of providers and quality competition, reliable framework conditions for hospital financing, modernization of the healthcare professions and consistent patient orientation in care.
Chairman: Head Christoph Radbruch, Magdeburg, deputy. Chairwoman: Andrea Trenner, Berlin, Treasurer: Dr. Holger Stiller, Düsseldorf, association director: Melanie Kanzler, Berlin.