This study analyzes the role of women on supervisory boards of German companies. In particular, we investigate the likelihood of women to hold senior positions such as (vice) chair of the board and their membership in standing committees. Based on the logic of the lack of fit model, we argue that once women overcome the first glass ceiling and become board members, they still face a second glass ceiling preventing them from gaining senior board positions. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 103 parity co-determined and publicly quoted companies from 2009 to 2016. We find that women directors are underrepresented in senior board positions. This gap is particularly large and even increasing for the position of the board chair. It is also present for the position of the vice chair and (in the case of shareholder representatives) for memberships in standing committees except for the nomination committee. These findings are consistent with the presence of a second glass ceiling. Our study contributes to the literature on the prevalence of women in senior board positions. In particular, we provide novel evidence on the progress of women on boards in a two-tier system with co-determination. One potential implication of our study is that women’s influence on board decision-making might still be limited despite the recent increase of the number of women on boards.

本研究分析了女性在德国公司监事会中的角色。我们特别调查了女性担任董事会（副主席）主席等高级职位以及担任常务委员会成员的可能性。基于缺乏契合模型的逻辑，我们认为，一旦女性克服第一个玻璃天花板并成为董事会成员，她们仍然面临第二个 玻璃天花板，阻碍她们获得高级董事会职位。我们使用 2009 年至 2016 年 103 家共同确定的上市公司样本来检验我们的假设。我们发现，女性董事在高级董事会职位中的代表性不足。对于董事会主席的位置来说，这个差距尤其大，甚至还在扩大。它还担任副主席职务和（在股东代表的情况下）担任除提名委员会外的常务委员会成员。这些发现与第二层玻璃天花板的存在是一致的。我们的研究为有关女性担任高级董事会职位的比例的文献做出了贡献。特别是，我们提供了新的证据，证明女性在共同决策的两层系统中在董事会中的进步。我们研究的一个潜在含义是，尽管最近董事会中女性人数有所增加，但女性对董事会决策的影响可能仍然有限。