Women's Issues a Focus in German Election Campaign

Germany may be the world’s third largest economy and German women may enjoy a high level of equality compared to other countries. But when it comes to juggling a career and motherhood, all that progressiveness seems to fly out of the window.

Although the country offers generous tax breaks for couples with children, a lengthy maternity leave, and a monthly per child bonus pay, the government benefits actually do more harm than good by encouraging many women to stay at home and raise children rather than return to work.

When paired with the extreme shortage of child-care centres, the number of employed moms is even lower. According to the national statistics office, there are only enough child care providers in Germany to cover 7 percent of kids under three years of age. And on the off chance that a mother gets her toddler into day care, she usually has to be home at noon, when the centre closes.

Primary schools are no better, most send pupils home at one o’clock at the latest. A school lunch isn’t even provided, since in many a German mind, a good mother has it waiting on the table at home.

To make matters worse, conservative attitudes towards women's roles still reign in Germany. As Heiner Ganßmann, a sociologist at the Free University in Berlin says, "This is basically a conservative society in terms of values and attitudes so the image in the conservative mind is still that a woman belongs at home".

Political parties sense an opportunity

It’s a situation that has gained considerable attention in this year’s election campaign as political parties across the spectrum flaunt their "family-friendly" credentials with an eye on upcoming polls.

But another good reason for German politicians to lend an ear to women’s issues is the fact that registered women voters outnumber male ones by a whopping two and a half million, and almost 30 percent of them are said to be undecided about their choice of chancellor.

Little wonder then that both the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Greens as well as the opposition Christian Democrat/Christian Social Union have been insisting they have the best plan to help women balance kids and career.

Renate Augstein (SPD), head of the Equality Department in Germany’s Ministry for Families, Seniors, Women and Youth welcomes the focus on women’s issues in this year’s campaign. "It’s important to get this subject in the middle of politics. In the past it was always something on the sidelines, interesting for a few women, but that was about it. That’s changed now. People realise there is a real danger there", she told DW-RADIO.

So what exactly are parties proposing to lighten the woes of working mothers?

SPD in favour of all-day schools

The ruling coalition quotes a study that says 70 percent of mothers in Germany with children under 16 years of age want to work. That’s why it’s putting emphasis on so-called "all-day" schools, ones which would keep kids the entire working day, instead of releasing them at noon or one o’clock.

The government says if re-elected, it will provide a billion euro over four years to set up 10,000 all-day schools by 2007. That would allow women to focus on career as well as family. It also wants to increase the child-care support that parents receive from the state to 200 euro per child per month.

Renate Augstein says the plan is about stepping in to give working families a hand when they need it.

"It’s not just about money, it’s about the working world that needs to be restructured. You know, many families go on welfare because one parent has to stop working because of the children and then the one remaining income just isn’t enough. If we put more money into child care or all-day schools, then more parents could stay at their jobs and wouldn’t have to enter the welfare system or fall under the poverty level."

Conservatives want "more money for the family"

Not to be outdone, the conservative opposition parties are promising to exchange the current child-support programme with a new plan to provide what they call, "money for the family". The plan envisages instituting a per-child payment of 600 euro until the child reaches the age of three regardless of family income. The monthly amount would decrease as the child grows older.

Maria Böhmer, head of the Frauen-Union, the women’s section of the Christian Democrats says the proposal is about creating justice for families and freedom of choice.

"We offer this money not based on the employment situation of the mother; we’d pay this whether a mother is employed or not. The money can help families balance children and career better. We help people decide themselves how they want to design their lives".

But to the Social Democrats, that kind of money would encourage women to design a life that means staying at home and returning to their traditional roles. Renate Augstein argues that plan will do nothing to guide women back into the work force after having kids.

"The schism between men and women will become bigger... The man will likely be the one who is employed full time, that has to invest time, power, energy in the career and the woman probably will stay at home. What was all that education for that we are providing our women?... That plan is a dead end", Augstein said.

Non-working women hurting the economy

But it’s not just the election that political parties in Germany need to worry about as they spout women-friendly policies.

The present system whereby the government offers huge tax breaks of up to about 10,000 euro for a couple with kids, where only one partner is the breadwinner and where stay-at-home moms get generous state benefits up to 460 euro for three kids not only discourages women from working, but also hurts the economy.

Rainer Schmidt-Ruttlof a specialist on Human Resources at the German Employers Association says that Germany needs its college-educated mothers to enter the workforce and fill the growing shortages in the labour market.

"Today we have the best qualified generation of women we ever had in Germany and we have to use these qualifications, these skills for our economy and for our business", he said.

Falling birth rates and fading potential

Bettina Schleicher of the Society of Business and Professional Women agrees. She says the country has to invest more in child care and after-school programmes. If it doesn’t, she says, the country will be hit on three fronts.

Women will be unsatisfied, the birth rate will likely continue to fall, and the investment that the country makes in educating women at its free universities is money down the drain.

"In Germany, we put a lot of money into education and training, we pay high taxes for that. But this invested money is of no use to us if the skills we’re imparting to these women don’t benefit the overall economy later on. And I doubt that all that money for education is worth it if it only serves raising children…We’re throwing away potential"

A further worrying problem in Germany is that the mom-career dilemma has caused birth rates in Germany to nosedive to under 1.4 – one of the lowest rates in Western Europe. Demographers fear that if the current trend continues, the results could be catastrophic. A lack of young working people in Germany’s rapidly ageing society could mean that the country won’t be able to meet its welfare costs in a couple of decades.

"Women decide not to have children because they have realised that children may have a negative impact on their career, so our birth rate in Germany is for example, significantly below the birth rate of the United States… The consequences of that is that the population in Germany will decrease, that will increase the skills shortage", said Rainer Schmidt-Ruttlof.

The government must now figure out a way for its women to be productive members of the work force as well as proud parents, and get over the old thinking that brief cases and baby carriages are best left separate.

But which government that will be after this Sunday, might well be led by the party that was able to convince Germany’s women voters it has their best interests in mind.