At FGS Global, we have a long history of working with female leaders, which is why we closely follow the development of female representation on boards. Currently, women make up only 19.7% of board members across the 160 DAX, MDAX and SDAX1, and the progress increasing this proportion remains slow. We are also concerned about the growing backlash against diversity in some countries and sectors.
Building on our previous research on media coverage of female versus male leaders in German media, this year we expanded our analysis, using advanced AI models to significantly broaden its scope. Our goal was to better understand how the media portrays women in leadership roles compared to their male counterparts today.
What did our AI-based media analysis reveal?
Media use of adjectives perpetuates gender stereotypes.
Male leaders are often characterized with adjectives emphasizing strategy, vision, and long-term thinking, while female leaders are associated with character traits that suggest agreeableness and a less-aggressive approach. In contrast, adjectives that occur equally distributed across the genders would typically describe a successful manager. This suggests that stereotypes persist at a qualitative, descriptive level.
Women are frequently described as being “new” or “first”, potentially portraying them as different, outsiders, or foreign to senior leadership roles, contributing to the perception of women not being natural or obvious choices at management level.
This finding is further supported by the fact that the most frequently reported female leaders had recently experienced a change in leadership. In contrast, the most frequently named male executives have been with their companies for longer and lead companies that are undergoing significant change or represent the change in the German business landscape.
Although the sample size is small, this suggests that news coverage of female executives may be driven more by their promotions as the “new one”, rather than by their actual work.
Appearance is less frequently discussed in articles concerning female leaders than in those concerning male leaders.
Specifically, 14.2% of articles on male leaders discussed their appearance, compared to only 7.2% of articles on female leaders. However, our analysis does not examine how detailed the description of the appearance within an article is, only whether it is mentioned.
This finding goes against our initial expectations. A potential explanation may be heightened awareness among journalists and communications teams about describing the appearance of women in leadership. It is also possible, that some highly covered male CEOs use their appearance as a part of their public persona.
In contrast, private life, family life, and marriage status of female leaders are slightly more often discussed than those of male leaders.
Private life is mentioned in 32.6% of articles about female leaders compared to 29.9% of articles about male leaders. Similarly, family life is discussed in 32.7% of articles about female leaders versus 30.8% for male leaders. Marriage status is also slightly more frequently mentioned for female leaders, appearing in 11.3% of articles compared to 11.1% for male leaders.
What does this mean for female leaders?
Eva Christiansen, Partner at FGS Global, commented: “It is encouraging to see an improvement in the media’s sensitivity to gender bias, particularly in relation to the physical appearance of leaders. However, a closer look reveals that female leaders are still described differently than their male counterparts. This means that female leaders still need to anticipate different stakeholder expectations of their leadership and consider different communication and positioning approaches than their male colleagues.”
Female leaders should pay particular attention to the following points:
Content First: Female leaders should take the time to define and refine their focus topics and messages. Consider what you stand for and in which areas you want to be visible.
Strategic Vision: Since adjectives describing women are often less focused on long-term strategic thinking, it is crucial for female leaders to emphasize these capabilities. This can help shift perceptions and showcase their leadership strengths.
Authenticity: To manage existing stereotypes, female leaders need to proactively position themselves in an authentic manner. Being true to oneself while highlighting professional achievements can help counteract stereotypes and build a strong, credible presence.
Visibility: Engage in activities that increase your visibility, such as public speaking, participating in panels. This helps to establish your thought leadership and expertise.
Media Engagement: Build relationships with media professionals and proactively share your perspectives, strategy and insights. This can help ensure that your contributions are recognized and that you are portrayed fairly and accurately – not just as “the new one”.
How did we do it?
To achieve this goal, we analyzed over 250.000 newspaper articles, published in 2023 and 2024 by major German newspapers and business magazines2, to determine how they depict female and male leaders, managers and executives.
We started with a broad sample of over 250.000 articles containing typical job titles such as “CEO”, “Manager”, or “Geschäftsführer”, and female equivalents (e.g. “Geschäftsführerin”). Using an AI-classifier, we assessed the relevance of each article for our analysis, filtering for those that that specifically focused on the portrayal or description of business leaders. To ensure a more precise analysis, we further refined the sample by selecting only highly relevant articles, as well as excluding athletes, politicians and celebrities. This process narrowed our dataset to 4.500 articles, which we then analyzed in-depth to examine their coverage and framing. Our automated metadata extraction identified and structured key attributes, including descriptions and adjectives related to leadership, strategy and personal focus.
1) Berichte Albright Stiftung
2) Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, manager magazin, Die Welt, Die Welt am Sonntag, WirtschaftsWoche, Börsen-Zeitung
