Women's Day

Today, on March 8, the world celebrates Women's Day. Red Baron was reminded by an article in Freiburg's Amtsblatt (Official Journal) showing a poster of March 1914. The Frauentag was already celebrated on the evening of the Great War, demanding the right to vote.

The right for women to vote in Germany eventually came in 1918 following total defeat in World War I and the transition from the 2nd Empire to the Republic of Weimar. Somehow we are proud, for the USA introduced universal suffrage only in 1920 and the UK in 1928. France eventually followed in 1944 after the shock of World War II. In Germany, the other side of the coin was that the percentages of women voting for Hitler and his party NSDAP were consistently higher than those for men in the Weimar Republic.

Today there is still inequality between men and women, e.g., wages, the latter being paid less for the same job. While in the European Union, the percentage of women in leading positions is only 33%, this figure is even lower in Germany at 28%.

But let us not grumble but instead write about real women's power. In 2012 German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were the world's most powerful women, according to Forbes magazine's annual survey.

I think the two ladies met at a talk show in Berlin in 2003 for the first time. Angela was chairwoman of Germany's strongest party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), and Hillary Senator of New York. At that time. Hillary was impressed by how Angela managed the Boy's Club and predicted her a great future.

Hillary and Angela following the appearance on German television
 in Sabine Christiansen's political talk show (©dpa)

Ten Years later, in 2013, when Angela was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and Hillary, US Secretary of State, they again met in Washington.

Shaking hands like men (©ap)

Both ladies were wearing trousers suits. In front of the microphone, Hillary seems to pray
while Angela is trying to form her favorite rhombus (©Reuters)

Women at power and power women. What makes them different from men? Red Baron had two female bosses during his professional life, and both were excellent leaders though I always felt a certain stubbornness in their leadership. Didn't Angela Merkel say concerning the stream of refugees flooding Germany: Wir schaffen das (We will make it) and stay with her statement despite all the opposition? Wasn't Margaret Thatcher always insisting: I want my money back, referring to the European Union? Wasn't Indira Gandhi prolonging the state of emergency in India several times from 1971 to 1975, defending her quasi-dictatorship: Not a dog barked?

It will be interesting to watch Forbes magazine's annual survey about the most powerful women in 2017: Will Hillary be the unchallenged number one, and will Angela still figure on that list? Another lady is already in her starting blocks for changing the guard in Germany: Ursula von der Leyen.

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