Gender and energy policy making under the first Merkel government

Abstract

Previous research has argued that female and male policy makers do not differ except on gendered policy issues, but little empirical research has actually examined the influence of a leader's gender in non-gendered policy areas. This article examines policy making under Chancellor Merkel in energy policy (not gendered), and compares it to policy making in reconciliation policy (a gendered issue). Significant changes in reconciliation policy were carried out under the leadership of Merkel's Minister for Family Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen. This article finds that on energy policy, in contrast, Merkel herself took a leadership role. For both policy areas, Merkel moved away from the traditional Christian Democratic standpoint. The article concludes that female leaders (perhaps particularly those on the right) may be more willing to take on a leadership role for non-gendered policy areas than on highly gendered ones. Therefore, the major difference by issue area is not so much what policy gets passed as how it gets passed.

Notes

Ange-Marie Hancock, ‘When Multiplication Doesn't Equal Quick Addition: Examining Intersectionality as a Research Paradigm’, Perspectives on Politics 5/1 (2007), p.13.

Susan J. Carroll, The Impact of Women in Public Office (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001); Michele Swers, The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer, ‘Still Super-Madres? Gender and the Policy Priorities of Latin American Legislators’, American Journal of Political Science 50/3 (2006), pp.570–585; Miki Caul Kittilson, ‘Representing Women: The Adoption of Parental Leave in Comparative Perspective’, Journal of Politics 70/2 (2008), pp.323–334; Pamela Paxton and Melanie M. Hughes, Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective, Sociology for a New Century (Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2007); Azza Karam and Joni Lovenduski, ‘Women in Parliament: Making a Difference’, in Julie Ballington and Azza Karam (eds), Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers, The International IDEA Handbook Series (Stockholm: IDEA, 2005), pp.187–212.

Both of these areas of research have large bodies of literature. On critical mass, see Drude Dahlerup, ‘From a Small to a Large Minority’, Scandinavian Political Studies 11/4 (1988), pp.275–298; Sue Thomas, ‘The Impact of Women on State Legislative Policies’, The Journal of Politics 53/4 (1991), pp.958–976; Janice D. Yoder, ‘Rethinking Tokenism: Looking Beyond Numbers’, Gender and Society 5/2 (1991), pp.178–192; Richard E. Matland and Donley T. Studlar, ‘The Contagion of Women Candidates in Single-Member District and Proportional Representation Electoral Systems: Canada and Norway’, The Journal of Politics 58/3 (1996), pp.707–733. Much of the critical mass literature draws on Rosabeth Moss Kanter, ‘Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women’, American Journal of Sociology 82/5 (1977), pp.65–990. For a more recent overview, see Karen Beckwith and Kimberly Cowell-Meyers, ‘Sheer Numbers: Critical Representation Thresholds and Women's Political Representation’, Perspectives on Politics 5/03 (2007), pp.553–565. On descriptive representation, see Anne Philips, The Politics of Presence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995); Jane Mansbridge, ‘Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent “Yes”’, Journal of Politics 61/3 (1999), pp.628–657.

Dorothy McBride Stetson, ‘Introduction: Abortion, Women's Movements, and Democratic Politics’, in Dorothy McBride Stetson (ed.), Abortion Politics, Women's Movements, and the Democratic State: A Comparative Study of State Feminism(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.1–16.

Ibid.

B.C. Farhar, ‘Gender and Renewable Energy: Policy, Analysis, and Market Implications’, Renewable Energy 15/1–4 (1998), pp.230–239; E.W. Cecelski, ‘From Rio to Beijing – Engendering the Energy Debate’, Energy Policy 23/6 (1995), pp.561–575; J.K. Parikh, ‘Gender Issues in Energy-Policy’, Energy Policy 23/9 (1995), pp.745–754; I. Mahat, ‘Gender and Rural Energy Technologies: Empowerment Perspective – A Case Study of Nepal’, Canadian Journal of Development Studies – Revue Canadienne d'Etudes du Developpement 27/4 (2006), pp.531–550.

D.J. Davidson and W.R. Freudenburg, ‘Gender and Environmental Risk Concerns – a Review and Analysis of Available Research’, Environment and Behavior 28/3 (1996), pp.302–339.

E. Matthies, S. Kuhn, and C.A. Klöckner, ‘Travel Mode Choice of Women – the Result of Limitation, Ecological Norm, or Weak Habit?’, Environment and Behavior 34/2 (2002), pp.163–177.

For further discussion and descriptions of additional projects, see Ulrike Roehr, ‘Gender and Energy in the North’, Paper presented at the Gender Perspectives for Earth Summit 2002: Energy, Transport, Information for Decision-Making, Berlin, 2001.

For a discussion of this hypothesis and Merkel's 2005 campaign, see Doreen Fantke, Olga Schmidt and Anett Zeidler, ‘“Weil sie eine Frau ist?” Merkel und die Geschlechterfrage’, in Sylka Scholz (ed.), ‘Kann die das?' Angela Merkels Kampf um die Macht: Geschlechterbilder und Geschlechterpolitiken im Bundestagswahlkampf 2005 (Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag, 2007), pp.81–96.

V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sission Runyan, Global Gender Power, 2nd edition (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), pp.95–7; Laura A. Liswood, Women World Leaders: Fifteen Great Politicians Tell Their Stories (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995), p.87.

John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies (Boston, MA: Little Brown and Company, 1984).

For more on the importance of vision in political reform, see Alisa Gaunder, Political Reform in Japan: Leadership Looming Large (London and New York: Routledge, 2007).

Philip Bethge et al., ‘Wege aus der Treibhausfalle’, Der Spiegel, 6 Nov. 2006.

Nicole Schley, Angela Merkel: Deutschlands Zukunft ist weiblich (Munich: Knaur Taschenbuch Verlag, 2005), pp.33–34.

G.K. Roberts, ‘The German Bundestag Election 2005’, Parliamentary Affairs 59/4 (2006), pp.668–681; George Tsebelis and Eric C.C. Chang, ‘Veto Players and the Structure of Budgets in Advanced Industrialized Countries’, European Journal of Political Research 43/3 (2004), pp.449–476. For a more nuanced analysis of policy making under a grand coalition, see 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.

Interview with Malte Ristau-Winkler, 27 June 2008.

Lovenduski and Norris come to a similar conclusion after examining the behaviour of women in the House of Commons. Joni Lovenduski and Pippa Norris Norris, ‘Westminster Women: The Politics of Presence’, Political Studies 51/1 (2003), pp.84–102.

Adam Przeworski and John Sprague, Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).

Volkmar Lauber and Lutz Mez, ‘Three Decades of Renewable Electricity Policies in Germany’, Energy and Environment 15/4 (2004), p.605.

Staffan Jacobsson and Volkmar Lauber, ‘The Politics and Policy of Energy System Transformation – Explaining the German Diffusion of Renewable Energy Technology’, Energy Policy 34 (2006), p.261.

Rolf Wüstenhagen and Michael Bilharz, ‘Green Energy Market Development in Germany: Effective Public Policy and Emerging Customer Demand’, Energy Policy 34 (2006), p.1682.

Lauber and Mez, ‘Three Decades of Renewable Electricity Policies in Germany’, p.617.

Ibid., pp.601–2.

On the advantages of the feed-in tariff over other methods of encouraging the development of the renewable energy sector, see J. Lipp, ‘Lessons for Effective Renewable Electricity Policy from Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom’, Energy Policy 35/11 (2007), pp.5481–5495; David Toke and Volkmar Lauber, ‘Anglo-Saxon and German approaches to Neoliberalism and Environmental Policy: The Case of Financing Renewable Energy’, Geoforum 38/4 (2007), pp.677–687.

Wüstenhagen and Bilharz, ‘Green Energy Market Development in Germany’, pp.1684–85.

Lauber and Mez, ‘Three Decades of Renewable Electricity Policies in Germany’, pp.602–4.

Ibid., pp.609–11; Wüstenhagen and Bilharz, ‘Green Energy Market Development in Germany’, pp.1687–8.

Wüstenhagen and Bilharz, ‘Green Energy Market Development in Germany’; Lauber and Mez, ‘Three Decades of Renewable Electricity Policies in Germany’.

Lauber and Mez, ‘Three Decades of Renewable Electricity Policies in Germany’, p.611.

Jacobsson and Lauber, ‘The Politics and Policy of Energy System Transformation’; Lauber and Mez, ‘Three Decades of Renewable Electricity Policies in Germany’, p.611.

Lipp, ‘Lessons for Effective Renewable Electricity Policy from Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom’, p.5492.

Following the disaster in Japan in March 2011, Merkel reversed her position on nuclear power. She has now committed Germany to a full phase-out of nuclear power by 2022. This shift reinforces the argument presented in this article that Merkel is modernizing the CDU.

Roland Nelles and Michael Sauga, ‘Kalkulierter Krach’, Der Spiegel, 16 Jan. 2006.

Angelika Nikionok-Ehrlich, ‘Klima- und Energiepaket im Kabinett’, Energie and Management, 4 Dec. 2007.

For more information on reconciliation policy, see Angelika von Wahl's contribution to this collection, ‘A ‘Women's Revolution from Above’? Female Leadership, Intersectionality, and Public Policy under the Merkel Government, German Politics, DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2011.606569.

Senioren Bundesministerium für Familie, Frauen und Jugend, ‘Erziehungsgeld, Elternzeit’ (Berlin: Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, 2006).

Frankfurter Rundschau, 22 April 2006.

G. Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990).

Der Spiegel, 13 April 2006; die tageszeitung, 27 April 2006.

Der Spiegel, 13 April 2006.

ddp, 12 March 2006.

Wahl, ‘From Family to Reconciliation Policy’.

Interview with Malte Ristau-Winkler, 27 June 2008; Interview with Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa, 24 June 2008.

In its efforts to pass the new law, the Family Ministry generally stressed comparisons with France and Sweden, countries with higher fertility rates, higher test scores for children, greater maternal satisfaction, and countries which are favoured vacation destinations for Germans. Comparisons with East Germany were generally downplayed because the quality of child care under the German Democratic Republic was viewed as low. Interview with Malte Ristau-Winkler, 27 June 2008. Within the Women's Union, however, conversations between women from the East and women from the West were helpful in convincing the westerners that the new policy was a good idea. Interview with Elke Holzapfel, 7 June 2008.

Interview with Malte Ristau-Winkler, 27 June 2008.

Roehr, ‘Gender and Energy in the North’.