Is Angela Merkel a Feminist?

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood at the helm of German politics for sixteen years, lauded by many as the “leader of the free world.” While she was one of the world’s most powerful women, her stance on feminism long remained unclear. Throughout her tenure, she largely refrained from speaking about her identity as a woman and as a woman from East Germany—both topics are featured in her recently published memoir. When asked to comment on the recent collapse of the ‘traffic light’ governing coalition after Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Free Democrat Christian Lindner—she responded: “Men!” The coalition under Scholz was the first to govern Germany after Merkel stepped down, and their ardent disagreements and constant infighting prevented them from getting anything done, causing trust among the governing parties to fall to record lows. Thus, while her remark was humorous, it speaks to her choice to give prominence to her female identity—something which remained essentially unaddressed throughout her period as chancellor.  

In her book, she dedicates a brief chapter to tackle the question of where she falls on feminism. She discusses having to navigate a man’s world, recalling when Chancellor Helmut Kohl invited Merkel to his office in what she describes as a “slightly strange meeting” where Kohl had asked her how she “gets on with women,” leaving Merkel unsure of how to respond. A few months later, she found out that the meeting had served as the basis for Kohl’s choice to appoint her as minister for women and youth. She stresses how much she worried about what to wear before her swearing-in as minister, referring to an instance where the only other Christian Democratic (CDU) representative from the new eastern states joining the cabinet, Günther Krause, told Merkel that she “should find herself something decent to wear.”  

She reflects on the time when she broke her leg as a ‘blessing in disguise’ which allowed her to wear trousers instead of skirts while using crutches. Merkel expresses her gratitude for her Christian Social Union colleague’s encouragement to ‘Be brave!’ and wear a trouser suit in the plenary assembly, noting how grim it now sounds but that back then, it was reality. As the minister for women, she pushed for the second Equality Act, passed in 1993, which improved compatibility between family and profession by ensuring equal job opportunities in the civil service and federal courts, appointed women to committees, and protected workers in private and public companies against sexual assault. However, she expressed disillusionment with how the act’s passage had been dragged out and shocked that it was presented as a threat to Germany’s economy. Nevertheless, Merkel became more active in promoting women’s equality later in her career as chancellor, when she led many initiatives for women and ensured that half of the leadership positions in the chancellor’s office were occupied by women. Equality of participation in all areas had always been her goal, she writes, but she remained unsure of whether that made her a feminist.  

In 2017, onstage at the G20 women’s summit, she called herself a feminist “in her own way” and elaborated that she fundamentally disagreed with the idea that women were fighting against men. She discusses how she has personally experienced women behaving with a lack of solidarity with other women. In East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Merkel explains that women were urgently needed in the workforce because of the inefficiency of the economy but that, nonetheless, women did not play an equal part in society and were still expected to do housework on top of their jobs. While she characterizes the science field similarly, she attributes the boundaries imposed upon her not to her sex but to her GDR origins. She also writes about her discussions with small groups of women from East and West who shared a bitterness with dealing with the pressure of social expectations—about “Rabenmütter,” literally “raven mothers,” who were said to neglect their children in favor of their work. Merkel explained that she changed her position on women quotas as the facts had gradually convinced her that equal employment opportunities were unachievable without them. 

In the GDR, abortion rights were further advanced than those in the West. Abortions became a legal right in East Germany in 1972, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy until up to twelve weeks. Procedures were also possible after the twelve-week mark under certain conditions if approved by a medical commission or if the woman’s life was at risk. The GDR also guaranteed access to free birth control. After German reunification in 1990, the new united Germany adopted the West’s policy where abortion was still officially illegal, although allowed in social and health emergencies. While a compromise was initially struck in which abortion was legalized, that ruling was overturned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1993. Still today, abortion is only allowed with counseling and a three-day wait period, and birth control is only free for women up to the age of twenty-two. 

In her memoir, Merkel addresses what she calls the magic words used by the CDU and CSU for decisions regarding work and family— ‘freedom of choice,’ which was, in practice, difficult to pursue. She writes how it became clear to her that “without the right conditions in place, women could not consider themselves to be treated equally—and they still aren’t.” Although not speaking about abortion explicitly, Merkel gradually adopted more progressive opinions on how to achieve women’s equality towards the end of her tenure as it became clear to her that state intervention was indispensable if the cause of women was to be promoted. 

Although Merkel has a mixed record on increasing women’s representation in leadership and guaranteeing women’s self-determination, the fact remains that she was in power for sixteen years in Germany and the de facto leader of Europe. That lasting impact, rather than her official stance on feminism, is what will determine her legacy on women’s leadership.