(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Germany is a thriving social democracy where women’s rights are enshrined in the constitution. Women enjoy legal protections such as generous family leave and a requirement that supervisory boards at big companies be at least 30 percent female. The chancellor of the past dozen years, Angela Merkel, is arguably the world’s most powerful woman. Yet even as the #MeToo movement has emboldened women and toppled celebrities, politicians, and sports stars worldwide, sexual harassment and misconduct haven't been a major topic of investigation or revelation in Germany.
Despite her obvious role in elevating the profile of women, Merkel doesn’t like being labeled a feminist. A pre-#MeToo article in the New York Times quoted Alice Schwarzer, a well-known feminist, on the limited career options seemingly available to young women of the Merkel era: “Since 2005, little girls can decide: Do I become a hairdresser—or chancellor?” There has been no parliamentary debate on #MeToo-related issues, as there has been in other countries globally. And with the exception of Dieter Wedel—a successful TV director being investigated for alleged predatory sexual behavior—virtually no politicians, corporate leaders, or celebrities have lost their jobs for sexual improprieties.
Many have theories to explain the reticence. Chantal Louis, a commentator with Emma, a bi-monthly publication that’s roughly analogous to Ms. magazine in the U.S., says that one key reason may be the particularities of German history. After decades of grappling with the legacy of Nazi terror, there’s little appetite for a debate over society’s guilt in handling a new class of victims. “Not many women want to come out and say they’ve been victimized,” she says. “They won’t get much sympathy.”
Manfred Guellner, chairman of the polling company Forsa, thinks the explanation is simple. “This debate doesn’t resonate in Germany,” he says. “Women here have other, more important, concerns.” A November poll by the researcher found that only 1 percent of German women say the #MeToo debate is relevant to their lives. But that’s not because there are no culprits, says Katarina Barley, minister of families and women in Merkel’s government. “It’s not enough just to have a woman at the top of government to effect real cultural change,” Barley says. She notes that Germany’s corporate power elite remains predominantly male: Despite that law regarding boards, only 6 percent of top managers at German companies are women. Without greater debate on the matter, Barley says, not much will change.
In recent years, a few cases issue of harassment have bubbled up into the German press, but none have gained much traction. In 2013, Stern magazine reported that Rainer Bruederle, a leader of the Free Democratic Party, had made inappropriate comments about a female journalist’s appearance. But interest in the case quickly flagged, and Bruederle faced little blowback.
Two years ago, Jenna Behrends, then a 26-year-old rising star of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, wrote an article titled “Why I Can’t Remain Silent About Sexism in My Party.” She described a culture in which male politicians spread salacious rumors about female rivals and successful women were assumed to have “slept their way to the top.” The reaction? Party colleagues, including members of the CDU’s women’s caucus, accused Behrends of seeking to bolster her own political career with the article. Behrends was ultimately told to stop talking about the issue and didn’t respond to emails and phone calls. “I don’t regret having written the letter,” Behrends told the Bild daily tabloid in one of her last interviews on the subject. “But it wasn’t a nice experience.”
To contact the author of this story: Birgit Jennen in Berlin at bjennen1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jillian Goodman at jgoodman74@bloomberg.net, David Rocks
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