A ‘women's revolution from above’? Female leadership, intersectionality, and public policy under the Merkel government

Abstract

Internationally, the number of female leaders has increased in recent years. While the rise of women to political prominence has been explored over the last two decades, we know much less about their actual decision-making. The article investigates what role Merkel's gender has played for governance during her first term in office. Has female leadership made a difference for the substantive representation of women's interests and, if so, how? This article compares and contrasts two explicitly gender-related policy areas, reconciliation and anti-discrimination policy, in a most-similar-case design. While major reforms were passed in the realm of family policy, anti-discrimination policy was considered a marginal political concern. To explain the different outcomes this analysis focuses on the identities and interests of relevant political players in their institutional context. In order to better understand female leadership and governance we use the lens of intersectionality, which has a promising theoretical and empirical potential.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Louise Davidson-Schmich for her many efforts in organising this collection of essays over the last two years. Many thanks also go to the other contributors, who provided useful feedback and good cheer, as well as to the two anonymous reviewers whose comments were extremely helpful.

Notes

Pamela Paxton and Melanie M. Hughes, Women, Politics, and Power, A Global Perspective (Los Angeles, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2007), pp.8–12.

Ibid., p.216.

Azza Karam and Joni Lovenduski, ‘Women in Parliament Making a Difference’, in Julie Ballington and Azza Karam (eds.), Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers (Stockholm: IDEA, 2005), pp.187–213.

Paxton and Hughes, Women, Politics, and Power, p.214.

Nira Yuval-Davis, ‘Intersectionality and Feminist Politics’, European Journal of Women's Studies 13 (2006) pp.193–209.

Kimberle Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989), pp.139–67; Kimberle Crenshaw, ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review 43/6 (July 1991), pp.1241–99; Kimberle Crenshaw et al. (eds.), Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (New York: New Press, 1995).

Mark R. Thompson and Ludmilla Lennartz, ‘The Making of Chancellor Merkel’, German Politics 15/1 (March 2006), pp.99–110; Myra Marx Ferree, ‘Angela Merkel: What Does it Mean to Run as a Woman?’, German Politics and Society 24/1 (Spring 2006), pp.93–107; Angelika von Wahl, ‘Women and Political Representation in Germany: The Not-So Unlikely Rise of Angela Merkel’, Paper presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 28 Sept.–10 Oct. 2006; Sarah E. Wiliarty, ‘Angela Merkel's Path to Power: The Role of Internal Party Dynamics and Leadership’, German Politics 17/1 (March 2008), pp.81–96.

Helms, ‘Politische Führung'.

Brigitte Geißel, Politikerinnen. Politisierung und Partizipation auf kommunaler Ebene (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1999).

Richard Lehne, ‘Domestic Policy and the Grand Coalition: Initial Steps’, Paper presented at American Political Science Association 2006 Annual Meeting, pp.1–24.

I have formulated some similar assumptions in an earlier article (see Note 13). Geoffrey K. Roberts, ‘The German Bundestag Election of 2005’, Parliamentary Affairs 59/4 (2006), pp.668–81; George Tsebelis and Eric C.C. Change, ‘Veto Players and the Structure of Budgets in Advanced Industrialized Countries’, European Journal of Political Research 43/3 (2004), pp.449–76.

Roberts, ‘The German Bundestag Election of 2005’.

Angelika von Wahl, ‘From Family to Reconciliation Policy: How the Grand Coalition Reforms the German Welfare State’, German Politics and Society 26/3 (2008), pp.25–49.

Manuela Glaab, ‘Politische Führung als strategischer Faktor’, Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 17/2 (2007), pp.303–32; Ludger Helms, ‘“Politische Führung” als politikwissenschaftliches Problem’, Politische Vierteljahresschrift 41/3 (2000), pp.411–34.

Ferree, ‘Angela Merkel’, pp.94–5.

Fiona Ross, ‘“Beyond Left and Right”: The New Partisan Politics of Welfare’, Governance 13/2 (2000), pp.155–83. Also von Wahl, ‘From Family to Reconciliation Policy'.

Annette Henninger, Christine Wimbauer and Rosine Dombrowski‘ ‘Geschlechtergleichheit oder “exklusive Emanzipation”? Ungleichheitssoziologische Implikationen der aktuellen familienpolitischen Reformen', Berliner Journal für Soziologie 18/1 (2008), pp.99–128; Angelika von Wahl, ‘Gender Equality in Germany, Comparing Policy Change across Domains’, West European Politics 29/3 (2006), pp.461–88.

Ilona Ostner, ‘Paradigmenwechsel in der (west)deutschen Familienpolitik', in Peter A. Berger and Heike Kahlert (eds.), Der demographische Wandel. Chancen für die Neuordnung der Geschlechterverhältnisse (Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2006), pp.165–202.

Bernd Ruerup and Sandra Gruescu, Nachhaltige Familienpolitik im Interesse einer aktiven Bevölkerungsentwicklung. Gutachten im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums fuer Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, 2003, available at http://www.sozialpolitikaktuell.de/docs/Gutachten_einer_nachhaltigen_Familienpolitik.pdf

Annette Henninger and Angelika von Wahl, ‘Das Umspielen von Veto-Spielern. Wie eine konservative Familienministerin den Familialismus des deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaates unterminiert’, in Christoph Egle and Reimut Zohlnhoefer (eds.), Die Zweite Grosse Koalition, Eine Bilanz der Regierung Merkel 2005–2009, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, pp.361–79.

Sven-Oliver Proksch and Jonathan B. Slapin, ‘Institutions and Coalition Formation: The German Election of 2005’, West European Politics 29/3 (2006), pp.540–59; Sibylle Hardmeier and Angelika von Wahl, ‘Gebären und arbeiten: Die Zukunftsfähigkeit deutscher Familien- und Arbeitsmarktpolitik’, in Jürgen Kocka (ed.), Die Zukunftsfähigkeit Deutschlands, WZB-Jahrbuch Berlin: edition sigma, 2007), pp.315–37; Markus Feldenkirchen, Ralf Neukirch and Christoph Schwennike, ‘Union: Ende der Schonzeit’, Spiegel 24, 9 June 2008, pp.26–8.

Henninger et al., ‘Geschlechtergleichheit oder “exklusive Emanzipation”? Ungleichheitssoziologische Implikationen der aktuellen familienpolitischen Reformen', Berliner Journal für Soziologie 18/1 (2008), pp.99–128.

See the speech by Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa presenting Germany's sixth CEDAW report on 2 Feb. 2009 in Geneva.

Jane Jenson and Denis Saint-Martin, ‘New Routes to Social Cohesion? Citizenship and the Social Investment State’, Canadian Journal of Sociology 23 (Winter 2003), pp.77–99.

Dorothea Siems, ‘Angela Merkel und die Frauen-Revolution von oben’, Welt-online, 5 July 2009.

IfD Allensbach, ‘Survey January 2009: Has Family Policy Improved the Situation of the Family?’, Welt-online, 5 July 2009.

IfDAllensbach, 2007, 2008, 2009, Welt-online, 5 July 2009.

‘Deutsche besinnen sich in der Krise auf die Familie’, Spiegel-online, 14 July 2009 (no author); review of recent Allensbach survey, the ‘family monitor’, a study by the Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Annette Henninger, Christine Wimbauer and Rosine Dombrowski, ‘Demography as a Push Towards Gender Equality? Current Reforms of German Family Policy’, Social Politics 15/3 (2008 ), pp.287–314.

Myra Marx Ferree, ‘Equality and Autonomy: Feminist Politics in the United States and West Germany’, in: Mary Fainsod Katzenstein and Carol McClurg Mueller (eds.), The Women's Movements of the United States and Western Europe (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1987 ), pp.172–95; von Wahl, ‘Gender Equality in Germany’; Kathrin Zippel, The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Zweiwochendienst, Bildung und Politik online, No. 258/2008.

Ibid.

Angelika von Wahl, Gleichstellungsregime, Berufliche Gleichstellung von Frauen in den USA und der Bundesrepublik (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1999).

Numbers of employees according to an interview with Martin Amberger, ADS, Nov. 2008. In contrast the British EOC in 1998 stood at £6 million and 160 employees and in 2006 167 employees and budget of about £8 million. The American EEOC has extended powers and resources. For comparison of the powers of the American EEOC: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html

Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes, Value-based Society as an Economic Factor, 1st Berlin Congress, Documentation, Nomos, 2008.

Alliance of German Women's Organizations, Alternative Report submitted by the Alliance of German Women's Organizations, in response to the 6th Periodic Report of the Federal German Government on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Berlin November 2008, p.6.

Gerd Langguth, ‘Proporz statt Kompetenz’, Spiegel online, 30 Nov. 2009.

The conservative Bavarian CSU, which has the lowest female membership of any major party in Germany, passed a 40 per cent women's quota limited to leadership roles. The vote in October 2010 was heavily debated and passed narrowly after Merkel supported the introduction of a quota in her speech to the delegates.