Two days after a coalition of conservatives won the German federal elections last month, the governor of Bavaria went on Instagram to say that the party was “ready for political change” and published a group framework of the probable future chancellor, Friedrich Merz, with five other leaders.
The photo seemed to suggest that a changed Germany will be extraordinarily similar to the old country: it shows six middle -aged white white men sitting around a snack table. The only apparent concession to modern sensitivity was that half of them did not wear ties.
Three and a half years after the only woman to serve as a retired chancellor, German national politics seems to be backsliding when it comes to diversity and gender equality. While in the United States the new administration has actively triggered the programs, in Germany the change seems to be less deliberated. But it is no less surprising.
The German Parliament has always been more male and less diversified than the population it represents, and the new one that will be sworn on Tuesday will be more male and – compared to society as a whole – less diversified than the previous one. Only 32 percent of the 630 new legislators are women, a drop from 35 percent in which the last parliament was formed in 2021.
In a country where society has sometimes appeared reluctant to move away from traditional gender roles, the number of women in the highest elected body has remained stagnant since 2013, when it reached a maximum of 36 percent. The president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, indicated this during a recent celebration of the women’s day.
“When our democracy has a problem with women, then our country has a problem with democracy,” said Steinmeier. In a speech, he observed that even if every elected woman of all parts of the country voted together like a block, they would not have reached the minority of a third necessary to block changes to the Constitution.
One of the reasons for the erosion of the presence of women in the halls of power is the political drift of Germany on the right, in which the parties tend to have fewer legislators.
In Parliament, the Bundestag, women represent only 12 percent of the alternative lasting hard for Germany (known as AFD); 23 percent of the conservative Christian democratic union of Merz; 25 percent of his only Bavarian twin party, the Christian social union; and 42 percent between the Social Democrats on the central left.
Only between the smallest parts of Parliament – the Greens and the Die Linke, both on the left – are female parliamentarians in the majority.
When Olaf Scholz formed his cabinet in 2021, he swore that he would name many women to be ministers as men. This balance remained in force until Christine Lambrecht, the Minister of Defense, was forced to resign after several false steps, and was replaced by a man.
Merz has mentioned the mistakes of Mrs. Lambrecht to explain why, when it appoints a new conservative government, she will not commit himself to equality.
“With it, we wouldn’t even do any favor to women,” he said in a television interview at the end of last year. The government is weeks later from the announcement.
Mechthild Heil, who leads a group of women in Merz’s party, disagrees.
After taking note of the lack of women’s voices in the coalition interviews, she became public with her concerns for the subordinate role that women play in the party, writing a letter to Merz and asking for women to have 50 % of the leadership roles in Parliament.
“I can give you many examples of truly competent women who are not listened to, who are not even sitting in the negotiation teams now,” said Heil. Without the women present during the negotiations, he said, important problems could be missing.
Mrs. Heil later explained why she had decided to become public.
“We are always told to be silent, that they will solve these problems, but we have listened to these topics for years and years and nothing changes,” he said.
Andrea Römmele, a scientist politician of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and a passionate observer of German politics, says that a reason why few women are represented is that the pool of candidates is relatively small. Many women, he said, face double work pressure and grow a family.
“You can’t underestimate how highly high work intensity political work,” he said.
Another problem, he says, is that many networks within the political parties – especially when it comes to the Christian Democratic Union – were formed years ago, when even less women were in a position of power.
“It is surprising when we now notice it is what we are back suddenly,” he said.