Women's Day

Today, on March 8, the world celebrates International 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.

Women's right to vote in Germany was granted in 1918, following total defeat in World War I and the transition from the 2nd Empire to the Weimar Republic. Somehow, we are proud that 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., in wages, with women 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; instead, let us 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 first met on a talk show in Berlin in 2003. Angela was chairwoman of Germany's strongest party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), and Hillary Clinton was Senator from New York. At that time. Hillary was impressed by how Angela managed the Boy's Club and predicted a great future for her.

Hillary and Angela are 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 was US Secretary of State, they met again 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 in 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, regarding the stream of refugees flooding Germany: "Wir schaffen das" (We will make it), and should we 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 to change the guard in Germany: Ursula von der Leyen.

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