New Study on Affirmative Action Policies for Leadership Positions

The German population expresses support for recruitment practices that favor women and people from non-academic households. The debate surrounding affirmative action policies to counteract inequality against underrepresented groups continues to raise questions about the use of quotas when it comes to hiring people to leadership positions or public offices. A new study by sociology professor Céline Teney of Freie Universität Berlin, published in the Journal of European Public Policy , finds that in Germany there is a preference for hiring practices that favor women and persons from non-academic households (i.e., with parents without tertiary education degrees). The study also revealed that there is less support for affirmative action policies for native East Germans and persons with an immigrant background. Professor Céline Teney and her team worked together with the market research firm YouGov to investigate levels of public support for affirmative action policies within the context of hiring underrepresented groups to leadership positions. The study is based on a survey that was conducted online in July 2021 with 2,676 participants from the German working population. The survey showed that there was significantly more support for affirmative action policies directed at women and persons from non-academic households (an average of 5.5 on a scale of 0 to 10) than for policies directed at persons with an immigrant background or native East Germans (an average of about 4.3 on a scale of 0 to 10).