In early March, Petra Scharner-Wolff took over as CEO of the German conglomerate Otto Group. Otto, a well-known company in Germany, was once famous for its extensive catalogs. In its prime, the catalog, which came out twice a year, featured over 1,000 pages of products ranging from clothing and toys to complete bedroom sets.
Currently, Otto no longer prints its catalog and has evolved into one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms. Despite being a privately owned company, it has around 38,500 employees and generated €15 billion ($15.7 billion) in revenue last year. The Otto online platform offers 18 million items for sale.
Schwarner-Wolff’s appointment marks a significant change for Otto Group, as it is the first time the Otto family will not be directly in charge of the company. Additionally, her promotion signifies a small victory for gender equality in Germany’s predominantly male-dominated business world.
The issue of gender equality in leadership positions is a persistent problem in Germany. Despite a measure of progress, women’s representation in executive leadership and boards of directors remains low. In 2025, women made up only 19.7% of executive leadership teams and 37.4% of boards of directors among the 160 biggest publicly listed companies in Germany.
Companies in Germany are still hesitant to change their traditional corporate behaviors, partly due to existing tax rules and the lack of childcare infrastructure. These factors contribute to the low representation of women in management. Cathedral Wrohlich, the head of the Gender Economics Research Group at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin, points out that prevailing gender norms and the negative social attitude toward mothers with young children in full-time employment also hinder women’s career advancement.
Germany has implemented legislation to address this imbalance by introducing gender quotas for publicly listed companies. The first legislation in 2015 required supervisory boards to have at least 30% women, while a second piece of legislation in 2021 mandated executive boards to include at least one woman and set targets to increase female representation at senior management levels.
The European Union has taken action with similar rules to promote gender equality in leadership positions, which are set to come into force in June 2026. However, progress differs among EU member states, with countries that have binding gender quotas showing higher representation of women on corporate boards compared to countries with soft measures or no action at all.
Otto Group stands out among family-owned businesses in Germany, as it is better than the average in terms of gender representation in leadership roles. With Scharner-Wolff on the executive board since 2015 and the appointment of another woman, Katy Roewer, as the new chief financial officer in 2025, the six-person executive board now consists of two women and four men.
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-is-still-behind-in-boardroom-gender-equality/a-71819369?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
