Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been called by many names in her 16 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy. Some praised her as hardworking, decent and trustworthy. Foreign media liked to refer to her as the “leader of the free world”. Others saw her as a savvy ruler who waited for the political winds to blow before making decisions.
Whatever labels were attached to this often inscrutable woman, one she herself has consistently avoided: feminist.
In 2017, Merkel awkwardly refused to identify herself as a feminist during a stage event. In an interview with the German publication The time her later explained that for them feminists are women like the famous German activist Alice Schwarzer or those who fought for the right to vote. “I don’t want to look for false praise,” said Merkel. “You’ve spent your entire life fighting for women’s rights in a way I can’t claim.”
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been called by many names in her 16 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy. Some praised her as hardworking, decent and trustworthy. Foreign media liked to refer to her as the “leader of the free world”. Others saw her as a savvy ruler who waited for the political winds to blow before making decisions.
Whatever labels were attached to this often inscrutable woman, one she herself has consistently avoided: feminist.
In 2017, Merkel awkwardly refused to identify herself as a feminist during a stage event. In an interview with the German publication The time her later explained that for them feminists are women like the famous German activist Alice Schwarzer or those who fought for the right to vote. “I don’t want to look for false praise,” said Merkel. “You’ve spent your entire life fighting for women’s rights in a way I can’t claim.”
But in September of this year, with the end of her term in office in sight, Merkel seemed to have had a change of heart, saying she believes “men and women are equal”. to explain in front of an enthusiastic audience: “In this sense I can say with certainty today: I am a feminist.”
Born Angela Dorothea Kasner in 1954, Merkel grew up in communist East Germany, where her father was a Lutheran pastor. She learned early on to find her way in a man’s world, first as a scientist, then in male-dominated German politics and her own CDU. Her old boss, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, used to call her “my girl”. On the international stage, she has withstood the attempts of figures such as the former US President donald trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to insult and undermine them.
This kind of subtle sexism could explain why Merkel has resisted the role of feminist heroine. “I rarely only speak to women,” Merkel said Di.e. time. “After all, I’m not just the chancellor of women in Germany, I’m the chancellor of everyone in Germany. … Parity in all areas just seems logical to me. I don’t have to keep addressing that.”
While Merkel’s unchanging uniform of boxy jackets and black pants serves to keep media focus on what she does rather than what she wears, her fashion choices have also been interpreted as her way of de-feminizing herself in order to to survive the patriarchy.
Anke Domscheit-Berg, member of the Bundestag for the opposition party Die Linke, sees the chancellor’s aesthetic decisions as a kind of smoke screen. “It was like armor,” she said. “A kind of protection against being considered a woman. … She has always steered clear of almost all divisive issues — and gender rights issues are always divisive.”
In her early years as Chancellor, Merkel campaigned for women-friendly laws and initiatives such as paid parental leave, the expansion of public kindergartens and the legal right to a kindergarten place for children from the age of one. But she advanced few new childcare or other initiatives to improve the status of women in the second half of her tenure.
In 2015, Merkel backed legislation mandating “women’s quotas” on non-executive boards, but only reluctantly and after much opposition. In some cases it appears to have delayed efforts to promote gender parity. In spite of stubbornly low Given the high number of women on company boards, she and her party opposed a proposed law that would require large public companies to have at least one woman on boards of three or more members. Eventually, under pressure from its coalition partner, the CDU agreed, and the law was passed that year. Today there is only one female CEO of a blue chip DAX 40 company in Germany.
In her own party, Merkel has attempted to elevate women to high-profile roles, in some cases with unfortunate results. She transferred Ursula von der Leyen from the Family Ministry to the Defense Ministry. After von der Leyen’s ministry became embroiled in a contract scandal, Merkel pushed for her to become President of the European Commission. Her other protégé, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, succeeded Merkel as CDU leader and defense minister. After a series of gaffes, they resigned in February 2020.
In 2017, Merkel’s governing coalition passed this Wage Transparency Act, which lets employees know what colleagues in similar positions are earning. However, the law only applies to employers with at least 200 employees and transfers the obligation to request salary information to employees. German women suffer from one of the largest pay gaps in Europe. 2019 European Commission data showed a gender pay gap of 14.1 percent across the European Union, while Germany’s gross hourly gap by gender was 19.2 percent.
While Merkel’s record on increasing women’s representation in leadership positions is arguably mixed, her efforts in the key area of women’s empowerment – reproductive rights – are decidedly not. “Thirty-two years after the wall came down, I still don’t have the same thing [reproductive] Rights like I had in East Germany,” said Domscheit-Berg, who comes from the same area in East Germany as Merkel. “I think that’s terrible.”
Abortions were a legal right for a woman in the former East, which could be terminated up to the 12th week of pregnancy if requested. They also had access to free birth control. Although abortion is now legal in Germany for up to 12 weeks, women must first undergo counseling and a three-day waiting period before they are given the go-ahead for the procedure. Birth control is only free for women up to the age of 22.
Another German law criminalizes doctors who publicly advertise abortions beyond listing them as a service, including offering online information about methods, costs, or recovery after the procedure. Doctors who break the law can be fined or imprisoned.
Merkel, who has not spoken out publicly for or against abortion, has not openly advocated changing the abortion law during her tenure. Only now that she and the CDU are out of government is the law against advertising for abortions to be abolished by the new coalition in Berlin.
Characteristic of the outgoing chancellor is the reluctance to speak out publicly on controversial issues. “She’s very discreet,” says Stefanie Lohaus, director and head of communications at EAF Berlin, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting diversity in leadership. “We can’t tell from the outside what battles she fought.”
For her part, Merkel downplays her importance to women, warning that “one swallow does not make a summer”. But despite her spotty record on women’s rights, her symbolic legacy stands out.
“I find that compared to 30 or 40 years ago, what we have, not only in the German government, but [more generally]is more than a swallow,” says Katharina Wrohlich, Professor of Public Finance, Gender and Family Economics at the University of Potsdam and Head of the Gender Economics Research Group at the German Institute for Economic Research.
As the de facto leader of Europe, the woman is nicknamed mom (“Mama”) has steered Germany and the EU through political upheavals, from the euro debt crisis of 2008 to Brexit. In 2015, she used her political capital by refusing to close Germany’s borders to Syrian refugees, a move that fueled popular support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, but also positioned Merkel as a European party moral authority. “Just the fact that she’s been in this post and been able to stay in power for so long and has this strong sense of leadership – whether you agree or disagree with her, she’s a leader – in that way, of course, she’s a role model for women and girls ‘ Lohaus said. Many German teenagers today only know one chancellor.
Alice Schwarzer, the feminist icon conjured up by Merkel to explain her unease about applying the label to herself, gave Reuters your opinion on the most important legacy of the outgoing chancellor: “She is admired by women all over the world. … The mere fact of their existence is a feminist statement.”
Merkel herself put it even more clearly. At a commemoration event to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage in Germany, she stated: “No one laughs anymore when a little girl says she wants to be a minister or chancellor.”
