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ANGELA MERKEL

Angela Merkel refuses to be ‘excuse’ for lack of female politicians

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that her role as the most powerful woman in Germany should not let society off the hook for the small proportion of women in politics.

Published: 12 November 2018 17:01 CET

Angela Merkel refuses to be 'excuse' for lack of female politicians

Angela Merkel with Rita Süssmuth (CDU), the former President of the Bundestag, Manuela Schwesig (SPD), Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Franziska Giffey (SPD), Minister for Family. Photo:

Much has been achieved over past decades in the road to gender equality, Merkel said, pointing out that a woman is no longer laughed at if she wants to be a minister or a chancellor.

But “a swallow does not a summer make,” she said in a speech marking a century since women won the right to vote in Germany.

“The fact that I exist should not be an excuse.”

Merkel was speaking at a celebration of 100 years of women's suffrage in the German Historical Museum.

She was joined by several women, including Rita Süssmuth (CDU), the former President of the Bundestag, Manuela Schwesig (SPD), Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Franziska Giffey (SPD), Federal Minister for Family.

Women make up just under 31 percent of the Bundestag or German parliament, down from over 36 percent previously.

“That's the proportion of women that Sudan has in its parliament,” said Merkel.

“I think that the proportion of women in our parliaments is a basic issue of our democracy.”

SEE ALSO: More men named 'Hans' than women in top German government roles

Beyond politics, women are also few and far between in the highest echelons of the country's businesses.

While 90 percent of the biggest listed companies in the United States have two women on their boards, in Germany only 17 percent meet this criteria.

“I hope that it will become a matter of course for men and women to share work, child-raising and housework equally and that no one will be forced into a role or a specific task because of his or her gender,” said Merkel.

“And I hope that we won't have to wait a hundred years to achieve that.”

SEE ALSO: 100 years of female suffrage – the unknown story

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Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes and smiles at a 2018 press conference in Berlin.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes at a 2018 press conference in Berlin. Aside from plans to take "a little nap" after retiring this week, she hasn't given much away about what she might do next. Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

The veteran chancellor has been tight-lipped about what she will do after handing over the reins to her successor Olaf Scholz on December 8th.

During her four terms in office, 67-year-old Merkel was often described as the most powerful woman in the world — but she hinted recently that she will not miss being in charge.

“I will understand very quickly that all this is now someone else’s responsibility. And I think I’m going to like that situation a lot,” she said during a trip to Washington this summer.

Famous for her stamina and her ability to remain fresh after all-night meetings, Merkel once said she can store sleep like a camel stores water.

But when asked about her retirement in Washington, she replied: “Maybe I’ll try to read something, then my eyes will start to close because I’m tired, so I’ll take a little nap, and then we’ll see where I show up.”

READ ALSO: ‘Eternal’ chancellor: Germany’s Merkel to hand over power
READ ALSO: The Merkel-Raute: How a hand gesture became a brand

‘See what happens’
First elected as an MP in 1990, just after German reunification, Merkel recently suggested she had never had time to stop and reflect on what else she might like to do.

“I have never had a normal working day and… I have naturally stopped asking myself what interests me most outside politics,” she told an audience during a joint interview with Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

“As I have reached the age of 67, I don’t have an infinite amount of time left. This means that I want to think carefully about what I want to do in the next phase of my life,” she said.

“Do I want to write, do I want to speak, do I want to go hiking, do I want to stay at home, do I want to see the world? I’ve decided to just do nothing to begin with and see what happens.”

Merkel’s predecessors have not stayed quiet for long. Helmut Schmidt, who left the chancellery in 1982, became co-editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit and a popular commentator on political life.

Helmut Kohl set up his own consultancy firm and Gerhard Schroeder became a lobbyist, taking a controversial position as chairman of the board of the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

German writer David Safier has imagined a more eccentric future for Merkel, penning a crime novel called Miss Merkel: Mord in der Uckermark that sees her tempted out of retirement to investigate a mysterious murder.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel forms her trademark hand gesture, the so-called “Merkel-Raute” (known in English as the Merkel rhombus, Merkel diamond or Triangle of Power). (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)

Planting vegetables
Merkel may wish to spend more time with her husband Joachim Sauer in Hohenwalde, near Templin in the former East Germany where she grew up, and where she has a holiday home that she retreats to when she’s weary.

Among the leisure activities she may undertake there is vegetable, and especially, potato planting, something that she once told Bunte magazine in an interview in 2013 that she enjoyed doing.

She is also known to be a fan of the volcanic island of D’Ischia, especially the remote seaside village of Sant’Angelo.

Merkel was captured on a smartphone video this week browsing the footwear in a Berlin sportswear store, leading to speculation that she may be planning something active.

Or the former scientist could embark on a speaking tour of the countless universities from Seoul to Tel Aviv that have awarded her honorary doctorates.

Merkel is set to receive a monthly pension of around 15,000 euros ($16,900) in her retirement, according to a calculation by the German Taxpayers’ Association.

But she has never been one for lavish spending, living in a fourth-floor apartment in Berlin and often doing her own grocery shopping.

In 2014, she even took Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to her favourite supermarket in Berlin after a bilateral meeting.

So perhaps she will simply spend some quiet nights in sipping her beloved white wine and whipping up the dish she once declared as her favourite, a “really good potato soup”.

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