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ABSTRACT
Despite its traditional adherence to gender roles limiting women’s responsibilities to Kinder, Küche, Kirche, the Christian Democratic Party itself has been ruled by three powerful females since 2018: Chancellor Angela Merkel, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, and CDU General-Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Despite occasional waves of conservative-hardliner resistance, all three women have helped to modernise the German gender regime while opening new doors for future women leaders across the party spectrum. Having exited the political stage after the 2021 elections, the Chancellor played a significant role in advancing the political fortunes of German women, beginning with von der Leyen, who now enjoys supranational prominence as EU Commission President, and Kramp-Karrenbauer, ostensibly descending the national power ladder despite her earlier successes. These diverging trajectories raise new questions as to the conditions under which we might expect women to prove ‘effective’ leaders. This article explores biographical parallels, stylistic differences, and the changing political landscape that may have facilitated or impeded each woman’s ability to transfer the leadership skills she acquired at one level to the mastering of challenges at another. It concludes with reflections on Merkel’s legacy in relation to ‘gender and politics’.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 To manage the strong personalities comprising his Grand Coalition cabinet (1966–1969), Baden-Württemberg’s forceful Minister President, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, turned to ‘soft’ leadership skills -- mediating, listening, informal management (Mushaben Citation2016).
2 Their early ‘name-calling efforts’ vis-à-vis Merkel (e.g. Kohl’s Girl, Ossi-Biene mit der Pokermiene, Mutti Merkel) quickly back-fired (Mushaben Citation2017a).
3 No longer confined to smokey, back-rooms, ambitious CDU males (sharing bottles of Chivas Regal) agreed on a 1979 flight to Chile never to rival each other for key positions. The ‘Andes Pact’ members included Christian Wulff, Friedbert Pflüger, Jürgen Rüttgers, Roland Koch and Friedrich Merz (Roll Citation2005, 308ff).
4 The transactional model stresses ‘command-and-control’, hierarchical structures, organisational loyalty, narrowly delineated objectives and clear lines of authority. The transformational model posits a leader who ‘develops colleagues and followers to higher levels of ability and potential … to look beyond their own interests towards interests that will benefit the group’ (Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt Citation2001, 795; Mandell and Pherwani Citation2003).
5 Top German candidates gather in a TV studio on election night for a cross-partisan debriefing; 2005 resulted in a surprising ‘near-tie’. Ostensibly inebriated, Schröder declared that his party would never negotiate with Merkel over the chancellorship, although her party had secured a plurality (Mushaben Citation2018b).
6 Georg Leber, Manfred Wörner and Gerhard Stoltenberg were forced to retreat due to ministry-related scandals prior to 1990, followed by the likes of Volker Rühe, Rudolpf Scharping, Franz Josef Jung, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, and Thomas de Maizière. Only one postwar defence minister rose to the chancellorship, sooner remembered for his performance as a powerful finance minister: Helmut Schmidt (SPD).
7 Pundits refer to her as AKK, given the ‘tongue twisting’ nature of her double last name. Until 1977, FRG women could only keep a hyphenated version of their own names.
8 This comment stems from the ‘Women’s 20’ summit, linked to the G-20 meeting she hosted in April 2017 (Mushaben Citation2018a, 84–85).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Joyce Marie Mushaben
Joyce Marie Mushaben is a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Comparative Politics and Gender Studies (Emerita) at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, an Adjunct Faculty member in the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, and participates in the EU feminist think tank, Gender5Plus. Her core publications include Becoming Madam Chancellor: Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic (2017); Gendering the European Union: New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits (2012, co-edited with Gabriele Abels); and The Changing Faces of Citizenship: Integration and Mobilization among Ethnic Minorities in Germany (2008). Her current books-in-progress are titled What Remains? The Dialectical Identity of Eastern Germans (forthcoming 2022), and From Mutter der Kompanie to Madam Europe: Ursula von der Leyen and the Pursuit of Gender Equality (forthcoming 2023).