We are aiming to increase the share of women on our Supervisory Board and our Board of Management, and in middle or upper management positions. Specifically, we plan to increase the percentage of women on these levels, worldwide, to 30. We are implementing numerous measures to this end:

• Our opportunities to achieve a good work-life balance through parental leave arrangements, flexible working hours, and childcare services
• The mentoring program Child and Career for managers, junior managers, and expert staff at Deutsche Telekom
• Specifically addressing female talent through cooperative activities and at events
• Filling more management positions with female talents
• Promoting the generation shift between male executives due to leave the company in the near future and female junior staff (mentoring)
• Maintaining or increasing the diversity score, also in transformation processes, especially when filling management positions
• Additional support and networking services, such as training courses and workshops on unconscious bias for employees and executives; exchanges with Employee Resource Groups; and the “Connected As One” communication campaign for the launch of our revised “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” Group Policy.
• The systematic review of the “Employee Lifecycle” to identify and reduce systemic barriers - for example, by asking questions about inclusion in exit interviews.

Together with the heads of our segments, we reached agreement on implementation plans for increasing our women’s quota. Our diverse range of measures has allowed us to continuously increase the share of women in management positions – worldwide, from 12.5 percent in 2010 to 28.1 percent as of December 31, 2022.

At 50 percent, we have already exceeded our 30 percent target for the Group Supervisory Board. We have also been successful with regard to the statutory gender quota for supervisory boards in Germany since January 1, 2016; in this area, at 42.4 percent, we are within the overall average for all legal entities in Germany. With a share of women of 37.5 percent (as of Dec. 31, 2022), the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management also exceeds our own and statutory requirements. However, further efforts are needed to meet the target mentioned above for the remaining management positions on the two levels beneath the Board of Management, in the management of the national companies, and the internal supervisory boards in Germany.

We are also working to increase the number of women participating in dual study programs in technical fields. Although the number of technical study places at universities increased, we have succeeded in maintaining the share of women at around 15 percent in the last five years (as of Dec: 31, 2022).

Networking for success
In Germany, our locally organized women’s networks helps women reach management positions by providing support and counseling, and facilitating interaction with other women. In addition, we joined with Global Digital Women, an international network of women shaping the digital sector, to organize an after-work event on female transformation. Nearly 40 women from different industries attended. During the event, they shared opinions on the potential of digital transformation and provided insights into their own professional journeys.

Promoting female STEM  specialists
With carefully targeted messaging, we are seeking to attract talented women to our company. In particular, we support women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects and careers: As part of our partnership with Femtec, we once again organized an innovation workshop in 2022. Femtec, a cooperative effort being undertaken by major companies, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, leading German technical universities, and ETH Zürich, is aimed at finding young female talent for STEM professions and developing it. During the five-month innovation workshop, 20 international women fellows developed technically innovative and green solutions for intelligent, energy-independent cell sites in Germany and the EU. In addition, we also teamed up with the Femtec Alumnae Network on a pilot project in the reporting year – a six-week further education program on artificial intelligence, leadership, and agile  working. Around 60 IT experts and young female managers took part in the virtual expert sessions.