The little difference

East German women are the biggest economic losers in Germany where most women hit glass ceilings

That Angela Merkel is Germany’s first female chancellor is common fare. What many Americans don’t know: she holds a PhD in physics, is the daughter of a protestant pastor – and from “Communist Germany”, as Americans call the East of the country before its reunion. On October 3, the reunion turned a mature 20 years. But despite a woman in charge knowing Eastern sentiments first hand, East German women still lag behind their Western sisters. With an average hourly pay of $17.30 in 2009 (before taxes), Eastern women earned $2.55 less than Western ladies who cashed in $19.90, reports the Federal Statistical Office. At the same time, all German women earned on average 23 percent less than men, writes the Federal Ministry for Women, rendering East German women economic losers.

Part of the problem: Women held only 27 percent of the 4 million leading positions in business as of 2007, mostly in small and mid-size companies; the big ones are almost exclusively run by men. The higher a position, the less likely you will see a woman, the Women Ministry summarizes – a paradox with more girls graduating from high school and finishing apprenticeships and studies not only faster but also better than boys.

Part of the problem: Women need more child care opportunities, tax breaks for child care costs and a change in attitude re-starting their careers after giving birth Forty-five percent of toddlers 3 years or younger enjoyed child care in East Germany in 2009, a dismal 15 percent in the West, reports the Federal Statistical Office. The higher number in the East is a legacy of the extensive kindergarten system built in Communist Germany, as the country needed women laborers for its economy. A model that is suddenly modern again.

Unsurprisingly, Germans barely opt for more than two children per family, leaving a demographical problem. While women lack career opportunities because of spotty childcare, neither low birth rates nor women can fill the perpetually bemoaned lack of skilled labor.

At the same time the ghost of unemployment is haunting every one starting in high school: last year a typical double-digit 12.6 percent in the East compared to 6.4 percent in the West were unemployed. During retirement, a pension gap between women and men persists with $65 in the West and staggering $260 in the East less for women – again a double whammy for Eastern females. Matthias Platzeck, Prime Minister of the Eastern state of Brandenburg, said in an August interview on the reunion in leading Spiegel magazine: “We didn’t want admission, we wanted to come together on equal footing, with a new constitution and a new anthem. We wanted symbols for a genuine new beginning. Others prevailed.”

Mostly men. The current Bundestag, the German equivalent to the House of Representatives, seats 195 women of 613 members, less than a third; the Bundesrat, equivalent to the U.S. Senate, just 17 women of 69 members, a mere quarter. Yet, at least this November 1, the Bundesrat elected a woman as its president for the first time.

If some women in power serve women better was questioned this summer in a heated exchange between 33-year-old Federal Women Minister Kristina Schröder and Germany’s most prominent feminist 68-year-old Alice Schwarzer. Schröder declared feminism superfluous and argued for boosting boys in schools. “Women need to be much more self-confident and tougher,” she said in a Spiegel interview. Schwarzer shot back in an open letter to Schröder declaring her unfit for the job: “A hopeless case.” Would Schröder be a minister without trailblazers like Schwarzer?

While most women hit a glass ceiling, Schröder’s ministry dismisses a quota for women in top positions in favor of free business, But a quota has gained traction. With Telekom, in March one of Germany’s biggest companies committed to a 30% quota for women in top and middle management by 2015. Sociologist Jutta Allmendinger was impressed by the motivating atmosphere in their offices. An exception. “A self-imposed commitment in the business community hasn’t changed anything for women,” concludes Allmendinger in a November interview with feminist Frau TV. “It won’t work without a quota for structural change.“ In Norway and the Netherlands a quota already changed company culture in favor of women. While Angela Merkel reigns Germany, many of her 41 million sisters still struggle to get ahead.