Die Unbeugsamen

- Good morning, Dr Lüders. - Good morning.

May we do a quick interview with you?

Okay, but just a minute and not a second longer!

Then I have to leave this wonderful place, I'm afraid.

- I don't want to end up under a car either. - No!

- All the best on your 80th birthday. - Thank you.

And congratulations on your honorary doctorate.

We'd like to ask you a few questions.

How close are we to achieving

your greatest goal: equal rights for women?

We've come some way, but we're not there yet.

If we don't continue to fight, we'll lose what we've achieved so far.

- May I ask you another question? - Okay.

You're known in the Bundestag for your excellent mediating skills.

How do you view the role of women as mediators

in the business of politics today?

Politics today would not be possible without the mediating influence of women

because men have a strong tendency to quarrel

and women have an equally strong tendency to reconcile.

- Thank you. - My pleasure.

FEMOCRACY

DEAR GENTLEMEN

Power is viewed as something unfeminine. I've never understood that.

I can remember the first major event I was involved in,

with Susanne von Paczensky, and Eva Rühmkorf in Berlin.

Big posters everywhere. I was so proud.

And the posters said: "Women and power?" So with a question mark at the end.

I was the only person on the panel

who said I didn't see the point of the question mark.

That I want to have power, that power is not something bad per se.

Rather, the way that people wield this power can be bad

and this should be questioned.

But if I'm powerless, I'm not able to influence anything.

And precisely because I'm a woman, I don't want to be without influence.

I want power so that I can have a say

and fight for things that matter to me.

My German teacher always told me in no uncertain terms:

"Ursula, politics is not a feminine pursuit."

And the more she said that to me,

the more I exasperated her, of course.

She motivated me to get more and more involved in politics.

When I got my school leaving certificate, she said,

"We wish you all the best for the future,

that you become another Hamm-Brücher, but with our values."

Hamm-Brücher was a Bavarian politician

with a combative approach, who did a lot for educational policy,

but her combative way was not the convent school's style.

So I was allowed to follow in her footsteps,

as long as I stuck to their values.

Since entering Bavarian State Parliament in 1950,

Hildegard Hamm-Brücher has fought to improve educational policy.

Her independent spirit, moral courage and expertise

have made her one of the best-known cultural policymakers in Germany.

And what is currently her most pressing political goal?

Improvements to the external and internal conditions in schools for our children

are urgently required,

but have unfortunately been neglected all too often in the past.

My mother really urged me to study hard.

She hadn't got her school leaving certificate,

so she said, "Make sure you study, my girl!

No one can take that knowledge away from you."

My father was more conservative in these matters

and said, "Don't learn too much, my girl. You'll never find a husband!"

A woman faces two questions in life:

What should I wear? And what should I cook?

That was the image of the woman.

The man is the provider, the woman is the housewife and mother

and once he's reached a certain position, she makes it possible for him

to invite guests to the house,

to entertain and lead a social life.

And she can use her own education to nurture and develop the children.

I remember a girl in my class…

We were at a grammar school,

and she said she wanted to study maths.

We were her classmates and even we fell off our chairs

because we just couldn't imagine a girl studying maths.

Whenever a woman or a girl marched to a different tune,

it was made clear to her that she was breaking with convention.

"Ah, she will get married" followed me everywhere I went.

Up to and including the time I went to university.

When I started studying law in Berlin, less than 10% of the students were women.

Or in lectures in Hamburg when the famous Professor Raape

addressed the lecture hall with "dear gentlemen…"

in spite of the fact that I and the few other girls in the hall

had purposely sat in the front row, he continued to use "gentlemen".

MRS MINISTER

"… I still have the right to speak here!"

"You have entrusted me with the task of leading the German Reich."

"The reunification of our free fatherland, this is our ultimate goal."

"We want to take a chance on more democracy."

"There will be no experiments in the area of foreign policy!"

"No experiments because they would lead

to the downfall of the German people once again."

I was at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation yesterday, looking at the photos:

nothing but black suits.

Photos of the leading committees and ministers back then.

Black suits and not a woman to be seen.

At some point I said, "You can't have half a democracy.

A nation is made up of both men and women."

In general, I believe that women

have something to offer in all areas, including politics.

There's even a chance that a woman could become a federal minister.

I bet it'd liven up cabinet meetings, Minister.

But not just as décor, I hope!

I'd like to believe

there's many a capable woman in this grand country of ours

with the expertise required to add something

to the men's complex discussions on order and the country's future.

Yes, I was very serious just now: women can contribute to cabinet meetings

in a way that men can't, don't you think, Minister?

I do believe that women can help us with our work, also in the cabinet.

That was my first really significant experience

as a member of the Bundestag.

The female CDU MPs were summoned by Mrs Brauksiepe.

We decided to ask for a woman on every committee.

And Adenauer hadn't appointed a single woman to the cabinet.

Then four female MPs went to see Adenauer. Mrs Brauksiepe in an elegant little hat.

WOMEN AND THE CONFLICTING PRIORITIES OF TODAY'S SOCIETY

"Have the demeanour of a lady and fight like a warhorse."

Aenne Brauksiepe, CDU

And then they came back and said, "We've done it!"

And we enthusiastically backed Dr Schwarzhaupt.

She was fantastic.

She became Minister of Health, but that wasn't all she did.

As a very young woman,

she was also in Stresemann's German People's Party

in a leading administrative role.

Then she was very active in the Confessing Church

and then after the war she was active in the rebuilding efforts.

Dr Schwarzhaupt did a really good job

and introduced a lot of new things.

Such as food labelling and other things that hadn't existed before.

I swear, so help me God.

"Consider yourself a gentleman amongst gentlemen!"

Konrad Adenauer, 1961

Dr Schwarzhaupt, your appointment as Germany's first female minister

leaves us with the small dilemma of how address you.

"Minister" or the female form "Ministerin"?

I would say "Ministerin", as I am a woman

and as the German language

has a male and a female form for these kinds of words.

This may appear a little ungallant, but is it perhaps worth considering

whether a woman in politics should or must hold a particular position

just because she is a woman?

Your question doesn't strike me as that ungallant.

It's a question I've faced for 20 years, wherever I've worked.

But personally, I've had very encouraging experiences

which have shown me that women are capable of a great deal,

because people often expect a lot of us in other areas.

And we contribute something different to a man.

If I were to work like a man and talk like a man,

I may as well have sent my husband here 20 years ago.

But this isn't the case. "Vive la difference", if you will.

We all make our own unique contribution to get the job done.

REBEL WOMEN

- There's no one around to decide. - Gentlemen!

In the hour of need, decisive decisions must be decided!

And in the history of humankind, there were always plucky women

who stepped in to save the day.

I'm the firm's longest-serving employee, so I'm in command here!

Good heavens!

The women fought their battles alone at first, each to her own.

And then in the 1970s, women discovered each other, as it were,

women who were in the same situation.

We stopped competing against each other for that one post allocated to a woman.

Instead, we joined forces to fight for the creation of more "women's posts".

I started to get interested in politics and to take part in political events.

Up until then, I didn't believe in my abilities…

I should add that I was married to someone who didn't believe in them either.

And I started to go to political events and suddenly I realised:

"Oh, people listen when you make a point."

I suddenly felt two metres taller and really validated,

and worked up the courage to really get involved.

How do you manage to balance your career and your family life?

Unfortunately, this is a question that people only ask female politicians.

You have to make compromises

and organise your life a bit differently,

but you manage it, just like business women

and farmer's wives do.

The father of my children couldn't deal with this new role at all.

Suddenly I'd stopped being the person who idolised him as "lord and master"

and kept my mouth shut.

I developed my own opinions. He couldn't handle it and we separated.

In '68 I did my final exams in Berlin and then went back to Tübingen,

where I was chair of the district authority for a while.

And then from 1970, I led the Social Democrat women's wing

in Baden-Württemberg,

somewhat to the horror of the top brass in the region.

They weren't too happy about our good-natured "onslaught".

Because of course we said that in the upcoming local government elections

we wanted to increase the share of women on the municipal councils

by at least 50 percent, if not more.

And to achieve this, we examined the internal party regulations,

worked out how to put together a budget,

how to present ourselves,

how men typically behave when they're on committees

how they negate women, how we can tackle this, and so on.

We really enjoyed it, and it was a success, too.

My name is Herta Däubler-Gmelin, I'm 29 years old,

I've been an MP since 19 November, and I'm also a Swabian.