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Siemens cuts woman who broke glass ceiling

Published: 22 Nov 12 07:11 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121122-46303.html

The first woman to reach the executive board at German engineering giant Siemens, shattering the firm's glass ceiling, will not have her contract renewed, it was reported on Wednesday.

Barbara Kux was hailed as a pioneer when she was appointed to the Siemens board in 2008 with responsibility for supply chains and sustainability. The 58-year-old from Switzerland was the first woman to reach such professional heights at Siemens.

But the tech giant has decided not to renew her contract at the next meeting of the supervisory board at the end of the month, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

Another woman followed Kux to the board in 2010 - Brigitte Ederer - who will likely be the only woman left as of November.

Despite a career which has included significant management positions with international companies such as Nestlé, Ford and Philips, she was unable to establish herself in the male-dominated top echelons of Siemens, the paper wrote.

It said that head of Siemens supervisory board Gerhard Cromme and executive board head Peter Löscher will have to admit that their choice of Kux was a poor one. Although Cromme wanted to keep her, he was apparently unable to overcome opposition from others within the company who want to split her job between other executives.

Taking home €3.9 million a year, Kux was Germany's best-paid female manager.

The Local/hc

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Your comments about this article:

03:27 November 26, 2012 by honeybeee
Comment: More and more european high tech companies use women managers even women board member, like Simense here . It seems women's working capablity has been paid more attention than before , one of the other advocacy in women's working equal right with men is german's car parts supplier Schaeffler Ag , they make every effort to ensure that our company provides its employees with the best possible development opportunities, around 1,000 young men and women begin their professional training every year.Recently , they nominated 2 women managers in new expansion Schffler Hungary corp., one of them is in charge of purchasing management as well , maybe one of the reason is Maria Schaeffler is now in charge of whole Schaeffler¦#39;s business , so she is willing to give woman manager¦#39;s more opportunities as well.
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