Women 's politics: Schröder meanwhile makes a fuss

Women in politics

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The "Gedöns" days are over, at least that much can be said. To speak condescendingly about the Ministry of Women, as Gerhard Schröder did more than 20 years ago, could no longer be expected by politicians in a responsible position today - the macho laugh would be drowned out by a storm of indignation. Women sit at the center of power, gender equality policy is no longer an orchid subject.

This was celebrated vigorously in 2019. The reason: women have been allowed to vote in Germany for a hundred years. The efforts that women (and men) have made in recent years for equality, which has been in the Basic Law since 1957, have therefore been recognized at numerous events. Nobody could get around the subject of women, it seemed.

But what does that really say about the state of equality in this republic? Is Germany already there or at least close to it? Certainly not.

The attention is there, the progress is visible and noticeable. CDU members describe themselves as feminists, which was formerly taboo in the party. The CSU and CDU tried to introduce a quota for women. An interfractional group of women discussed a parity law for the Bundestag, Brandenburg passed the same as the first federal state, Thuringia followed. There have been many premieres in and out of Germany: the first boss of the EU Commission, the first chairwoman of the SPD, the first co-boss of a Dax group.

AFP

The first woman to head the SPD: Andrea Nahles celebrates a hundred years of female suffrage

The year 2019 will not only be a year, but also a decade in which the issues of equality and women's rights will be given special attention - not only in Germany. This was also remarkably ensured by male-dominated populism, whose representatives sometimes boasted of sexual assault - and got angry reactions.

The outcry and MeToo debates caused women everywhere to break their silence about sexual harassment. In Germany, the so-called advertising ban for abortions, paragraph 219a , argued and whether women can regret their motherhood or have children is selfish.

Sebastian Willnow / DPA

Demonstration against paragraphs 218 / 219a

Politicians from many parties have worked in recent years to eliminate or alleviate structural inequalities and gender differences. They have ensured that more women come into politics, that they work in management positions or that they earn more money:

• The introduction of parental allowance should encourage more men to take off work for the offspring. According to the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, the proportion of men who use the service has increased in recent years: from just under 21 percent (2008) to 37.5 percent of fathers.
• Since 2016, the law for the equal participation of women and men in management positions has required a gender quota of at least 30 percent for the replacement of the supervisory boards of listed companies, while others should commit to a specific target. At the beginning of 2019, the proportion of women on supervisory boards exceeded the 30 percent mark for the first time.
• The Pay Transparency Act has been intended to ensure more equal pay for women and men for two years. So far, only a few female workers have asked their employer for information on the salary of their colleagues.
• The grand coalition introduced the part-time bridge law earlier this year, which is designed to help women get back to full jobs after, for example, reducing their working hours for children. Only three percent of companies use the right to a limited part-time job.
• In 2019, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz decided to lower the tax on menstrual items.

So all is well, everything is on the right track? Not at all. Because in 2019 it looked like this:

• The proportion of women in the Bundestag has dropped by seven percent to 31 percent .
• In the federal states in which the last election was held (with the exception of Hesse), the proportion of women in the state parliament decreased.
• Popular parties like the CDU have a 26 percent share of women, which has hardly increased in recent years. Attempts to introduce a quota are more difficult than expected.
• On average, women still earn 21 percent less gross per hour than men.
• Mothers continue to work mostly part-time. Although both parents now have a job in every third family, the traditional division of roles has hardly changed: In only nine percent of the cases, both parents were fully employed.
• The proportion of women has decreased in positions such as management, management or board .

It doesn't matter that this year, for the first time, a CDU party leader (Angela Merkel) handed over the office to another (Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer). Or that a woman has been at the head of government for 14 years.

Only when this is normal, when women are no longer the first in their job, in office, is what the German Bundestag wrote in the Basic Law in 1957: Equality.