|, Researcher at glacier think tank Chen Jibing
On the 26th of this month, the German Bundestag elections will produce a new government and its leaders, and the largest European power will soon bid farewell to Angela Merkel's 16-year rule and enter the "post-Merkel era".
It's a historic moment where different people see a lot of things from their own different perspectives. But for feminists around the world, it will be a disappointing moment.
So far, the election situation in this German election is still very difficult to predict, but Annalena Baerbock, the post-80s female candidate launched by the Green Party, seems to be on a high and low trend, and it seems that the odds are not great.
The return of German politics in the "post-Merkel era" to male dominance is a high probability event.
▲Merkel (picture/network)
If so, then, after the impeachment and dismissal of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (2016) and the resignation of British Prime Minister Theresa May due to failed Brexit negotiations (2019), there will be no more female leaders among the world's major powers (if not symbolic heads of state with real power such as the Queen).
Thus, the "post-Merkel era" also means that after decades of soaring in the field of global politics, the feminist movement will enter a period of downturn.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" >01 16 years of Merkel and German women</h1>
In the September 2005 German election, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) narrowly defeated then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic Party by a few thousand votes, making her the eighth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
At the time, not many people thought that the first female chancellor in German history from East Germany had the courage and talent of a leader of a great power. It's more of a story of the outspoken word that most of the German leaders before her were hunky Old West German men who drank heavily, smoked cigars, and talked rudely.
However, after seemingly unhurried four premierships, the unpretentious Merkel equaled the 16-year reign of her political mentor, Helmut Kohl.
Cole and his "little girl" Merkel (Photo/Network)
This will not only make her the longest-serving female leader in modern history (11 years and 208 consecutive days by Margaret Thatcher, recognized as the "Iron Lady" who shaped the contemporary world order), but it will also make her one of the longest-serving political leaders in history who have come to power through democratic elections.
For 16 years, the titles awarded to Merkel by the Western media have also become more and more noble: from "German leader" to "European leader", she once became (since Donald Trump was elected us president) and "the leader of the Western free world" (it is said that she herself was very annoyed by this title), and even the European media exaggeratedly commented that "Merkel is a leader in European history who has achieved more than Napoleon"...
In any case, many years ago, Merkel had become the "uncrowned queen" of Europe. For more than a decade, Time Magazine ranked her at the top of the list of "the most powerful women in the world", and no one had any objections to this. You know, when Merkel first sat on the German chancellorship, the Western leaders she dealt with were George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac... Wonder how many readers remember them today?
Most people who know anything about Western society know that Germany is certainly not a feminist paradise. Among all western countries, Germany is not at the top in the protection of women's rights and interests, not only far behind the Scandinavian countries, but also inferior to the United States, Britain and France as a whole, and not even much stronger than the southern European countries.
In most fields, the path to promotion for German women remains difficult. It is often said that German women are as independent and tough as men (which may be the intuitive impression of their tall and tall figures), but in economically developed Germany, female entrepreneurs are so rare!
This means even more that Merkel's long success in German politics is an intricate achievement in itself! Not only that, in this macho country, Merkel has also brought a huge positive impact on women's development space with her success.
On November 11, 2018, world leaders participated in the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of World War I in Paris
Politically, when Merkel first became chancellor in 2005, there was only one woman governor in Germany's 16 federal states. Today, there are 4 serving female governors in the country. Of her current 15 cabinet members, 6 are women.
Ursula von der Leyen, the current president of the European Commission, was defense minister in Merkel's cabinet before leaving for Brussels.
In the current Bundestag, 37 per cent are women.
▲Members of the Council of the German Bundesrat (Photo/ Official website of the German Bundesrat)
There are now women leaders in every political party in Germany. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the last president of Merkel's CDU, was a woman who was once Merkel's designated successor; the left-wing Greens, which had been elected for several years, had institutionally established a one-man, one-woman double-chairmanship; even the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which was recognized as the far right. Not long ago, a female party leader was also elected.
Economically, the data shows that in the past 10 years, the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of German listed companies has risen from 9.3% to 25.7%, and the number of female board members has increased from 2.5% to 6.5%. Although it is still not ideal, the progress is not insignificant.
Unfortunately, the average woman's situation has improved to a limited extent. According to the German Federal Statistical Office, the income gap between women and men shows little sign of narrowing over the past 20 years. At present, women in the same job are still paid 6% less than men on average. This gap is at the forefront of the EUROPEAN Union, indicating that in Germany, the cause of promoting women's rights still has a long and arduous road to go.
We cannot attribute all of Germany's achievements in gender equality in the last 20 years to Merkel, which, more objectively, is a global trend to which Merkel has made an important contribution.
Few would disagree, though the low-key, pragmatic Merkel is quietly changing a long-standing prejudice among many: women are emotionally prone to being unfit for careers that require calm rationality and logic, such as politics and science.
Merkel studied physics in her early years, and her doctoral dissertation was on calculating the reaction rate constants of hydrocarbons, an area that most men are deterred from.
Merkel's doctoral dissertation (photo/BBC)
If she did not achieve much in this professional scientific field, then her rational and calm qualities were vividly exerted in the political field she later devoted herself to.
From the Wall Street financial crisis to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, from Russia's annexation of Ukraine and Crimea to the surging wave of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, from the protracted Brexit battle to the recent COVID-19 pandemic... In the face of a wave of crisis that hit Europe, Merkel showed her usual astonishing rationality and composure.
Especially when you look at the male leaders who worked with her, such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi... Their casualness, willfulness, frivolity and capriciousness further set off Merkel's scarf without eyebrows.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="171" >02 does not highlight the female identity, but wins success</h1>
One of the important reasons for Merkel's success, which may discourage passionate feminists, is that she does not highlight the sense of female identity.
In the 30 years since she entered politics, the female symbol has been inconspicuous throughout Merkel's career, except for the contemptuous and affectionate "little girl" in her early years. She never deliberately used her feminine identity, and she didn't seem to even think about it.
During her long 16 years as chancellor, few Germans or Europeans have clearly felt that Germany is a lady in power. There is also no indication that feminists have voted more for Merkel, or that her opponents are mostly conservatives in social values or mainstream male voters.
If we compare this to today's wave of identity politics in the United States, we will be extremely impressed.
Merkel knows a lot about her neutrality in the civil service, and even in her private life, she is not very feminine. In turn, she does not show the kind of "strong woman" style that feminists usually despise, the kind of "strong woman" who sacrifices or suppresses femininity in order to get ahead in the patriarchal world.
Merkel's paternal surname was "Kasna", and the surname "Merkel" now used was from her first husband, Ulrich Merkel. He was a classmate of hers in the Physics Department at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig.
Her first marriage lasted a short time, and her current husband, Joachim Sauer, a chemist and teacher she had given up for her PhD, has retired.
▲ Merkel and her current husband, Dr. Sauer, photographed in 1989 and 2007 respectively (Photo/ China Daily)
The reason why she did not use her current husband's surname was explained this way: Sauer means more pejorative in German: "sour", or "sharp". However, why didn't she change back to her father's surname after divorcing her first husband, but instead retain the surname "Merkel"? This is incomprehensible.
In short, she clearly has no intention of challenging the thousand-year-old tradition of wives and husbands in Western societies.
Most of the media say Merkel usually does not live in the German Chancellery on the right side of the Bundestag, but instead walks or bikes back after work to the apartment she has been living in before she was elected chancellor, at 6 Fairgrabenstraße ancoop.
The 4-storey apartment is located on the edge of the famous "Museum Island" in the heart of Berlin, directly opposite the Pergamum Museum. It's a museum that mainly shows ancient history, and I once went inside to visit it, and from there it's a 20-minute walk to the Bundestag.
It is said that in 2006, the museum's security cameras inadvertently photographed Merkel's living room. The doorbell of this apartment had the following words written on it: "Dr. Sauer, Professor."
Like a normal housewife, Merkel likes to fiddle with flowers and plants in her spare time and cook while listening to classical music. Her best cooking skill is plum cake, and her husband often complains that she bakes cakes with too few crumbs on them. Merkel's own favorite food is Berlin patties and German beer – standard, mediocre German tastes.
Like most Westerners, the couple love nature, such as going on vacation in the Alps. Merkel once described her dream: to cross Siberia, all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok... It won't be long before her dream comes true, and the Russian language she learned in East Germany at a young age will come in handy.
Merkel is also a football fan and a big fan of the German football team. As we've seen on TV, she'll cheer for Germany's goal, happy like a child...
All these temperaments and tastes show that she is a very ordinary German woman - simple, straightforward, bland, neither ambitious, unconventional, nor lacking in evocative delicate and sensitive feminine features.
Even Merkel's costumes and hairstyles are like this, and even the enthusiasm for pointing is difficult to evoke. The hairstylist who served her was said to be a well-known image design consultant in Berlin, with German supermodel Claudia Schiffer and Hollywood star Demi Moore both being his guests. It's hard to understand how he created this image for Merkel.
Merkel in various periods (photo/BBC)
Maybe that's the Germans.
As the first female president in the history of the European Commission, German Ursula von der Leyen also saw little feminine charm in her. Of course, having given birth to 7 children, she did not show much obvious strong woman temperament.
However, in German politics, where men still dominate absolutely, it is precisely by relying on this not deliberate "Buddhist" posture that they have won unprecedented success.
It can even be said that Merkel's female identity, which she never wanted to highlight, has objectively become her advantageous weapon.
Many male politicians struggle to find a suitable tone in front of her, outspoken Germans are prone to say the wrong thing, and their attacks on Merkel can easily be seen as being directed at women (or an older woman!). ) of the demeaning. This will make them appear to be very low style and lose a lot of sympathy votes.
I have been to Germany many times in the past few years. In my interactions with some Germans, I could clearly feel the unique and subtle respect that most of them had for Merkel.
I'm not saying that these Germans all agree with and support Merkel's politics, and more than half of them won't vote for her. I mean, even Merkel's opponents gave her the utmost respect.
This is not at all like in the United States, Trump's fans and Biden's fans often scold each other's idols, and they can do their filthy words. In Germany, Merkel is spoken of as if she were talking about a king, cautiously, not as brazenly as a democratically elected politician.
Such a relationship between the people and the leaders of the government is almost a unique case in today's world. I think it has a lot to do with Merkel's wise attitude toward her own female identity. Merkel is also said to have privately imitated narcissistic male leaders for fun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="172" >03 Feminist movement should not be a "gender war."</h1>
In the spring of 2017, at the G20 Women's Summit in Berlin, Merkel was asked the following question: "Are you a feminist?" ”
Merkel's answer was hesitant, saying she "didn't want to dress herself up with feathers like this." This caused a whisper from the predominantly female audience, and some people directly booed.
▲On April 25, 2017, Merkel attended the G20 Women's Summit (Photo/Xinhua News Agency)
The guest of honor at the same dialogue, the current Queen of the Netherlands, had to come out to play the round. She made a very loose definition of "feminism", to the effect that feminists advocate the promotion of women's rights and interests, and hope that women will play the same role as men in society...
In this case, Merkel said, "Then me too." The tone was still reluctant.
As a rational, prudent, and responsible politician rarely seen in contemporary times, Merkel does not want to be labeled "feminist" on herself.
I don't think she, who has held power for 16 years, wouldn't be unaware that such an identity label can give herself a loyal vote that exudes fiery political passion. But she understands better that identity politics is a Pandora's box, and when opened, it will release demons that tear a normal society apart.
There must be a lot of people who are disappointed by Merkel's "timidity". However, as someone with strong sympathy for women's rights and feminism, I would like to remind them: is the ultimate goal of feminism to win eyeballs, create stars and heroes, or to substantially improve women's rights?
The two are sharply contradictory in many cases, because the hero is born in a decisive battle with the "evil enemy". If you want to see heroes, you must first create "enemies". However, in the social undertaking of improving women's rights and interests, the most unwise and most important thing to avoid is precisely to create enemies for oneself for no reason.
The feminist movement should not be a "gender war."
Many men, like me, of course have some of the stereotypical prejudices of male superiority and inferiority inherited from tradition, most of the time even unconscious and unconscious. But what is more certain is that the vast majority of them, like me, are not evil enemies of women's rights at the level of subjective consciousness, but rather their ardent friends.
▲ On April 26, 2017, Merkel took a group photo with participants at the G20 Women Leaders Summit (Photo/Xinhua News Agency)
If feminists genuinely want their careers to work, the biggest inspiration they can get from Merkel's success is:
Through seemingly "inaction", she has won herself supporters and friends to the greatest extent, and let those who are likely to stand against her own side of the people and forces, when facing herself, have no purpose and are at a loss.
What feminism really needs is not to overwhelm the "enemy" and win "victory" in one "battle after another," but to turn one thing after another that seemed "abnormal" in the past into "normal."