Anja Kirsch

Professor Anja Kirsch holds the Professorship for Gender, Governance and International Management at the Department of Economics at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on gender diversity in corporate leadership, examining the impact of gender quotas, board composition, and women's representation in executive positions across European companies. Currently (2025), she is serving as a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney Business School until January 2026, where she is based in the Department of Work and Organizational Studies and the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work.

Her research interests center on gender dynamics in corporate governance, with particular attention to women's representation on executive and supervisory boards. She investigates how gender quotas affect corporate decision-making, the effectiveness of policy instruments for labor standards governance, and the relationship between gender diversity and organizational performance. Her work employs both quantitative analysis of board composition data and qualitative approaches including interviews with board members.

Prof. Kirsch's publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on gender equality in corporate leadership, with recent work analyzing the implementation and effects of gender quotas across EU member states, the representation of women in German corporate boards, and the mechanisms through which female directors advance gender equality initiatives within organizations. Her research shows that while gender quotas have successfully increased women's representation on corporate boards, true gender parity remains distant, with most companies having only one or two women in top leadership positions.

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Prof. Kirsch actively participates in international research collaborations, including work with DIW Berlin and researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen. She has contributed to significant policy discussions, including a study commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department that analyzed gender quota policies across EU member states. Her research has informed policy debates on corporate governance and gender equality in Germany and the European Union.