Glass Ceiling for Women in Germany?

Today, Forbes published their yearly list of the worlds most powerful 100 women. As a native German, I was very proud to see Angela Merkel ranked on the top spot for a second year in a row! What an achievement!

So my thoughts started wandering... as a German expat living in the US, for some reason, this was important to me. The fact that for the first time in history a woman is Chancellor and she's also ranked the most powerful woman in the world showed that Germany is keeping up with the times and is maybe even leading the way a little bit. That in turn is important as I am playing with the thought to take my family (wife and two little kids) back to Germany. (Sadly, I don't want my kids to go to school in the US...). And since I do have a daughter, it is very important to me that grows up in an environment that provides all opportunities to women. So here I'm coming full circle... that's why Angela holding the top spot is important. It means women in Germany are as emancipated as they are in the US or a Scandinavian country.

Or are they? I kept browsing the ranking: first page - no other German woman but Angela; second page - no other German woman at all... OK... So I resorted the ranking by country and depressingly, Angela Merkel is the only German woman in that ranking. There are eight women from China, four from France, three from the Netherlands, seven from the UK, and fifty from the US. Admittedly, China and the US have much larger populations but I don't think that matters as much. France, the Netherlands and the UK all have smaller populations. I was shocked! Does Germany not give women at least the same opportunities as other countries do? Is there a glass ceiling that is thick enough that only a woman like Angela Merkel can penetrate? I grew up in that country and I am very happy with my independent-thinking-oriented education that provided me all opportunity. Is that not the same for women there? I thought it was but to be perfectly honest, I don't really know and I'm not sure anymore.

Certainly, there have been famous and powerful women in German history: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848), Clara Schumann (1819-1896), Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1944), Rosa Luxemburg (1870 – 1919), Lise Meitner (1878-1968), Sophie Scholl (1921- 1943) come to mind. There are also, certainly, many powerful women in politics, entertainment and business right now. But where are they? I'd love to see a list. I would love to know that, if we move back to Germany, my daughter can decide what she wants to do with her life freely, without artificial societal limits. Whether she decides to be a great stay-at-home mom or the CEO of a company or Chancellor, I want her to be able to choose freely!

Right now, I am insecure in regards to how things really are, which, in reality is always difficult to know. It would be very interesting to get other opinions on this, particularly from women living and working in Germany as well as from German women living and working abroad.