KfW Research: Number of women at the helm of SMEs has grown again

• 16 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany have a female boss
• Share of women in other management roles in SMEs is on the decline
• Women are most likely run small businesses in the services sector

The number of women-led small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany has grown slightly again. Of the approx. 3.87 million small and medium-sized enterprises in the country, around 16 per cent, or 621,000, were headed by a woman in 2025. In the previous year, that share was the lowest it had been since surveys began in 2003, at 14.3 per cent. It peaked in 2022 at 19.7 per cent.

The moderate upward trend at the top of the hierarchy contrasts with the trend in the numbers of female managers across all levels of hierarchy. These include team leaders, heads of division or department and general managers, executive board members or owners. Last year 34.3 per cent of these leadership roles were occupied by women, after 35.6 per cent the year before and as much as 40.0 per cent in 2023. These are the findings of a special analysis of the KfW SME Panel, a representative survey of German SMEs.

“Women continue to be clearly underrepresented in leadership positions in SMEs. The economic significance of women-led SMEs cannot be underestimated but has been moving sideways for many years and is generally not increasing,”

said Dr Dirk Schumacher, Chief Economist of KfW. Women-led SMEs employ some 3.3 million workers in Germany (ten per cent of the SME workforce) and generate a total turnover of EUR 435 billion (roughly eight per cent of total SME turnover).

“One important lever for getting more women into leadership positions is to further increase female labour force participation. A lot has happened in this regard in recent years, so I am confident that the share of women in SME management roles will grow successively,”

added Schumacher.

In Germany, women are most likely to manage service businesses, with 88 per cent of all companies headed by a woman situated in this segment. Women are heavily represented as bosses particularly in hospitality, certain parts of stationary retail, tourism and personal services.

Furthermore, women often run very small businesses. A total of 84 per cent – or 514,000 – of women-led enterprises are micro-businesses with fewer than five employees. Only around 6,000 of larger enterprises with 50 or more employees have female bosses, which means that only one per cent of women-led SMEs are larger businesses.

In 2025, a female-led business employed approx. 7.2 workers on average, including the owner. Male-led businesses averaged ten employees, making them roughly 39 per cent larger. The median turnover of male-led businesses was EUR 288,000, 23 per cent higher than that of female-led businesses.

What is clear is that women promote women. More than three fourths (76 per cent) of all management roles in SMEs headed by a woman were occupied by a woman. In male-led businesses, on the other hand, the average share of management roles occupied by a woman across all hierarchical levels was just 14 per cent. Besides the scientifically proven aspect that women support each other in their careers, another factor that plays a role is that women are most likely to be managers in businesses in occupational areas preferred by women.

The study can be found at Focus on Economics | KfW

^{KfW supports SMEs with a number of promotional programmes on behalf of the Federal Government. More information is available at We are strengthening the SME sector (German page).}