Women in DAX supervisory boards exit earlier than men as female leadership on boards grows
Study finds women in DAX supervisory boards leave sooner than men – average tenure 5.4 vs 9.5 years – while female board leadership rises to record levels.
Women in DAX supervisory boards are stepping down far sooner than their male colleagues even as female influence on those boards strengthens, according to an analysis by executive search firm Russell Reynolds. The study, which reviewed changes at this year’s general meetings across the 40 DAX companies, found the average tenure of departing women was 5.4 years versus 9.5 years for departing men. The disparity has widened in recent years even as the overall share of women on DAX supervisory boards sits at 38.3 percent.
Shorter tenures for female supervisory board members
The Russell Reynolds analysis points to a growing gap in how long men and women serve on DAX supervisory boards. Among the directors who left last year, men had served an average of nearly a decade while women typically served about half that time. This pattern holds across a range of companies and reflects an uneven distribution of long-term incumbency.
Corporate veterans among departing men accentuated the difference. Several male board members left after decades in office, pushing up the male average. By contrast, most exiting women had much shorter tenures, widening the measured gulf between the sexes.
Numbers and age differences at departure
The gender gap in tenure is accompanied by a notable age difference at exit. Departing men averaged 66.9 years of age, while departing women averaged 59.2 years, more than a seven-year gap. That gap suggests men often remain in office into their late sixties or beyond, whereas women tend to leave earlier in life and career.
The proportion of women across supervisory boards has climbed steadily over two decades but has recently slipped back from a peak above 40 percent to 38.3 percent. The reduction underscores how turnover patterns can influence headline diversity figures even when appointment rates are rising.
Long-serving women remain the exception
Long tenures among female supervisory board members are still rare. The report highlights that only a single departing woman had exceeded a decade of service: Dagmar Kollmann, the former Germany head of Morgan Stanley, who left Deutsche Telekom’s supervisory board after 14 years. By contrast, six departing men in the same period had served more than ten years, including high-profile names with multi-decade records.
Examples cited in the analysis include Paul Achleitner, who accumulated 24 years of service on Bayer’s supervisory board, and Wolfgang Reitzle, who stepped down from Continental after 17 years. These long male incumbencies help explain why average male tenure remains substantially higher.
Short early exits and company examples
While many male departures reflect long service, several female directors left after only a few years on the job. At this year’s general meetings, three women relinquished their seats after three years or less: Sujatha Chandrasekaran at Brenntag, Susanne Schröter-Crossan at Zalando, and Feiyu Xu at Airbus. Early departures like these pull the female average down and raise questions about retention and career pathways to long-term board roles.
Short-term exits can reflect many factors, including personal decisions, changes in company strategy, or shifts in board composition driven by shareholder votes. The Russell Reynolds analysis does not assign causes for individual departures but highlights the aggregate effect on female tenure metrics.
Women increasingly lead supervisory boards
Despite shorter average tenures, women’s influence on board leadership has grown. For the first time, five of the 40 DAX supervisory boards are chaired by women, a historic high. Notable female chairs include Simone Bagel-Trah at Henkel, Katrin Suder at DHL Group, and Sabrina Soussan at Continental.
Clara Streit, a former McKinsey consultant, stands out as the first woman to chair two DAX supervisory boards simultaneously, at Deutsche Börse and at Vonovia. The trend of women ascending to chair positions suggests that when women do reach the top of supervisory boards, they are occupying senior leadership roles that shape company governance.
Governance implications and what to watch next
The divergence in tenure raises governance questions for investors and companies alike. Shorter female tenures may limit institutional memory and reduce the pool of women with decade-long board experience, which in turn can affect succession planning and the diversity of perspectives available to companies over time. Board composition is dynamic, and appointment patterns over the coming years will determine whether the pool of long-serving female directors grows.
Policymakers and shareholder groups have pushed for boardroom diversity in recent years, and those efforts appear to be influencing appointment rates and leadership selection. Monitoring whether newly appointed women remain longer in office will be crucial to assessing the durability of recent gains and whether boardroom gender balance translates into sustained representation at senior levels.
The Russell Reynolds analysis provides a snapshot of an evolving landscape: while the proportion of women and the number of female chairs have risen, average tenure and age-at-exit disparities show that the path to enduring equality on DAX supervisory boards remains uneven.
