VZCZCXRO0373
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHFT #8141/01 3421446
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081446Z DEC 06
FM AMCONSUL FRANKFURT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8756
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 FRANKFURT 008141 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR S/WE AND EUR/AGS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI KWMN ECON ELAB PGOV GM
SUBJECT: German Women, Economy Stuck at Glass Ceiling 
 
REF: Frankfurt 4327 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. In a city of skyscrapers and boardrooms, the absence of top 
female management in Frankfurt is striking -- nor is Frankfurt 
unique in Germany.  The "glass ceiling" for women in the German 
workforce is remarkably pervasive and persistent, fueling Germany's 
demographic problems and lowering potential growth.  A scant 11 
percent of German companies have a woman in management positions, 
compared to the EU average of 14% and 40% in the U.S.  In terms of 
representation in management, balance between work and family, 
compensation, social acceptance, and entrepreneurship, German 
businesswomen face serious handicaps and arguably one of the lowest 
"glass ceilings" in Europe.  The primary sources of this gender gap 
are institutional (Germany's shortage of day-care facilities and the 
constraints of half-day K-12 schooling) and societal (working 
mothers are often seen as bad parents).  In a country of shrinking 
population and opportunity, forcing women to choose between career 
and family only compounds Germany's economic and demographic 
challenges.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Corporate Boards: A Man's World 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. A country led by its first-ever female chancellor (Angela 
Merkel), Germany remains the industrialized state with the smallest 
share of women in management and the fewest female top managers.  Of 
Germany's thirty leading blue-chip companies (the DAX 30 Index, 
analogous to the DowJones 30 Industrials), only two executive board 
seats (out of 197) are occupied by women -- and those only recently: 
 in 2004, Karin Dorrepaal joined Schering's board, followed by 
Christine Licci at HVB in 2005 (note that neither woman is German). 
Women -- often from abroad -- are only slowly making inroads in 
related economic fields, such as Beatrice Weder di Mauro (the first 
woman member of Germany's Council of Economic Advisers) and Lucrezia 
Reichlin (Head of Research at the European Central Bank). 
 
¶3. In terms of overall workforce participation, Germany and the 
United States are  at par (women hold 46.6% of jobs in the U.S. and 
46.5% in Germany), but Germany trails the U.S. in terms of women in 
management. Only 21% of German executives and managers are women 
(compared to 35.2% in the U.S.), and most German front offices are 
male dominions.  Women succeed in business in Germany "by sending a 
message to the world that they are not interested in a family," said 
Bernhard Meyer, owner of Meyer & Associates, a Frankfurt executive 
search firm specializing in investment-banking. 
 
Equal Pay and Taxes 
------------------- 
 
¶4. Germany is farther from realizing the goal of "equal pay for 
equal work" than the United States:  German women employed full-time 
in private industry earn on average EUR 2,517 ($3,017) per month, or 
around 30% less than male colleagues (women in the U.S. earn 24% 
less than men for comparable work).  This disparity is also 
prevalent in the Frankfurt area's flagship banking and insurance 
industries where men earn EUR 3,505 ($4,200) per month opposed to 
EUR 2,704 ($3,240) for female colleagues.  Women often perceive a 
disadvantage when it comes to paying taxes as well, since the 
marginal gain from a second income in Germany's highly progressive 
tax system is often small, especially if a family loses entitlement 
to means-tested benefits. 
 
Career vs. Family 
----------------- 
 
¶5. The pervasive gender gap at all levels of management in Germany 
reflects in large part the persistent incompatibility of career and 
family for women.  (NOTE: Chancellor Merkel herself has no children 
-- END NOTE).  As Regine Stachelhaus (Managing Director of 
Hewlett-Packard Germany) puts it: "women who want to have a real 
career have no choice but to remain childless." The private sector's 
commitment to childcare and family-friendly policies, mostly 
voluntary, has fallen short:  only an estimated 8% of firms have 
implemented family-friendly workplaces.  Science and research also 
show a profound gender gap:  the annual "Innovation Indicator" 
(published by the Federation Of German Industries/BDI) shows that 
Germany lags behind most other developed nations in the 
"participation of women in the innovation process" (2006 Report). 
 
Institutional Deficits 
---------------------- 
 
¶6. Many feel that Germany's welfare state, in "protecting" expectant 
women, has fueled informal discrimination and led women to delay or 
forego childbearing.  Since 1968, German law has barred dismissing 
or demoting expectant women;  in 1993, guaranteed maternity leave 
was extended to two years (later to three), during which time 
 
FRANKFURT 00008141  002 OF 003 
 
 
mothers were entitled to 3.5 months (total) of full salary.  As of 
January 2007, Germany will transition to government support payments 
of 12 months (or 14 months if the father takes at least two months 
of paternity leave).  Although forbidden, it is a widespread 
practice for bosses to inquire about plans to have children, and are 
often reluctant to trust women of childbearing age with long term 
projects. 
 
¶7. Childcare facilities in western Germany are underdeveloped and 
give few mothers a viable alternative to staying at home. Daycare 
facilities for children under three are rare, especially outside 
urban areas, and most only take children between 1 and 3 years.  In 
Frankfurt, only three centers cover an eight-hour day, enabling a 
woman to take on a fulltime job.  Even when the child turns three, 
where "kindergarten" attendance is widespread, a mother's workforce 
availability improves only marginally:  most kindergartens operate 
only from 9 am to noon;  schools likewise close typically at about 1 
pm.  In this respect, western German states differ from the former 
eastern Germany which had a far greater workforce participation of 
women (about 90% prior to 1989). 
 
Cultural Prejudice Q "Rabenmuetter" and Gender Politics 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶8. That women bear the brunt of childrearing in Germany reflects 
cultural prejudice on a level beyond its Western European neighbors. 
  Many Germans -- men and women -- frown upon mothers who return to 
work at the cost of spending time with children.  Barbara 
Schaeffer-Hegel, founder of the European Academy for Women in 
Politics and Business (EAF), argues that the motherhood ideology of 
the Nazi period left a deep impression on post-war attitudes towards 
working women:  "The word 'Rabenmutter' (loosely translated as "bad 
mother" with latchkey kids) only exists in Germany."  (In other 
European countries such as France, mothers who are professionally 
successful appear to bear little or no social stigma). 
 
¶9. The "Rabenmutter" term comes from the fifties and sixties, when 
women returned home after working out of necessity during WWII and 
post-war rebuilding.  It was considered an achievement that women 
could stay at home and a sign of social advancement ("my wife does 
not have to work");  few thought that women would seek careers.  As 
a result, much of Germany's institutional system (education, taxes, 
and so on) is designed on the presumption that mothers stay at 
home. 
 
Women-Owned Businesses 
---------------------- 
 
¶10. With the hurdles facing women in traditional firms, 
entrepreneurship can be a conduit to success.  (In the U.S., the 
number of female-owned firms increased two-and-a-half times faster 
in the 1990s than all U.S. businesses.  Employment in these firms 
grew more than three times and payroll grew at almost twice the rate 
for all firms).  This trend is lacking in Germany.  While currently 
about 12% of German male workers become entrepreneurs, only half as 
many women do.  One company in four is founded by a woman --and 
women fail less often than men on their way to entrepreneurship-- 
but only 10 to 15% of technology-based enterprises are owned by 
women.  Women entrepreneurs may face difficulty in raising capital 
due to lack of experience reflecting workplace inequities.  Founded 
in December 2003, the German Agency for Women Start-Ups (BGA) does 
counsel and support women in setting up businesses. 
 
Policy and Politics 
------------------- 
 
¶11. "Poster Mom" (mother of seven) and federal Minister of Family 
Affairs Dr. Ursula von der Leyen (CDU/Christian Democratic Union) 
has spearheaded proposals to help reconcile career and family for 
women, including new financial incentives and improved child care 
availability.  A key proposal is to shorten maternity leave to 12 
months and to tie maternity benefits to the mother's previous 
income. As a result, higher-income families might have more children 
while the shorter maternity leave of one year would impel mothers to 
return to work sooner and reassure employers that maternity does not 
mean losing qualified personnel indefinitely.  (The changes would 
also favor the CDU base -- namely higher-earners and companies). The 
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, under Vice-Chancellor Franz 
Muentefering (SPD) includes gender equality and work-life balance 
among its priorities for the German EU Presidency in the first half 
of 2007. 
 
¶12. The issue is standard fare for Social Democrats and Greens in 
this region (and elsewhere): although the CDU is modernizing, it 
faces an uphill road on the issue after promoting "stay-at-home" 
motherhood for decades.  CDU traditionalism has eroded the party's 
support in urban centers and particularly among young professionals 
who view its policies as reactionary or unhelpful to working 
families.  Only in 2004 did the Hesse CDU change a long-standing 
platform that "the right of a child to be raised at home through age 
 
FRANKFURT 00008141  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶13. Among the CDU modernizers is new Baden-Wuerttemberg 
Minister-President Guenther Oettinger, who has polled well in urban 
areas of the large and wealthy state.  By twisting arms among the 
state's successful companies, Oettinger has managed to increase 
significantly daycare availability for under-3 year olds, while 
working towards "all-day" public schools by building school 
cafeterias and extending the school day.  Rheinland-Pfalz 
Minister-President (and national Social Democratic Party/SPD 
chairman) Kurt Beck has promoted daycare and all-day schools for the 
past five years -- but like other state leaders, faces the grim 
reality of Germany's high labor costs in any initiative. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶14. As institutional and cultural pressures force women to choose 
between motherhood and career, Germany's birthrate has fallen to 1.3 
children per woman (the EU's lowest), far below the 2.1 that experts 
say is necessary for a stable population.  Germany is twenty years 
behind EU member states such as Denmark and Sweden, who reacted in 
the late 1980s and have significantly reduced the magnitude of their 
demographic problem.  In any case, a shrinking population will 
induce women to join the German workforce in greater numbers and in 
more responsible positions.  The faster German business and 
government can dismantle the glass ceiling, the better the German 
economy will perform. 
 
¶15. This cable was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
 
POWELL