(Bloomberg) --

Germany’s top companies promoted more women to their boards last year, suggesting quotas are helping to create more inclusive leadership teams.

The share of women on executive boards of the country’s top 200 firms climbed three percentage points to nearly 15%, according to the Berlin-based DIW economic research institute, the steepest increase since it started tracking progress in 2006.

“Women continue to be notably underrepresented in many large companies, but the latest trend is remarkable,” said Katharina Wrohlich, who leads the gender economics research team at DIW.

Female representation on supervisory boards rose at a slower pace to just over 30%. Data were collected from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7.

A rule that mandates a 30% representation of women on supervisory boards has been in place in Germany since 2016. From August, management boards of listed companies and firms with more than 2,000 employees, where labor unions have supervisory board seats, will also be subject to gender quotas: If they have more than three management board seats, one will have to be filled by a woman.

Read more: Germany Hails ‘Milestone’ Accord on Board Seats for Women

That rule currently affects 66 companies, according to DIW. While 19 still don’t have any female executives, 12 appointed a woman since DIW’s last assessment in 2020.

The latest data show DAX-30 companies leading their peers. Government-affiliated businesses are doing better still, though DIW cautions that their small size and frequent link of management positions to political roles complicates comparisons.

Despite the recent progress, Germany is lagging its peers in promoting women. Across the European Union, one in five executive-board members is female, with Romania topping the ranking at 32%.

In terms of supervisory boards, Germany trails countries including France, Italy and Belgium, where woman represent more than 40%.

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