Is Britain behind times in attitude to women politicians?

Angela Merkel’s election triumph has been seen as a victory for women. But do we have enough female leaders? Chris Bond reports.
German Chancellor Angela MerkelGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel

MARGARET Thatcher may have baulked at the idea, but politics has, for a long time, been regarded as a man’s game.

Today, the corridors of power still reverberate to the sound of leather shoes worn by men in sharp suits who just happen to be the beneficiaries of a private school education. This might sound like a colossal generalization, a cliché even, but it’s a truism nonetheless.

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Which makes Angela Merkel’s triumph in the German elections all the more significant. In a country that revolves around coalition politics she came within a whisker of winning an absolute majority – the last time this happened was back in 1957.

The political wheeling and dealing now starts in earnest but it’s Merkel in the driving seat, having reinforced her status as arguably the most powerful woman in Europe.

Baroness Haleh Afshar, Professor of Women’s Studies at York University, believes Merkel’s success is a victory for women. “It’s extremely important, because despite the fact that women won the vote in the last century the number of influential women on the world stage are few and far between,” she says.

Merkel is clearly a wily political operator, but what makes her special? Her nickname “mutti” – “mummy” – was used in the past by her enemies to poke fun at her dowdy image, but now it’s become a term of endearment for many Germans who view her as a safe pair of hands sailing a steady course through troubled water. “What I like about her is she’s not glamorous, she’s counter-intuitive in this sense,” says Baroness Afshar. “But she also shows that you don’t have to be on the Left or Right, or be loud and domineering, to be a leading figure. She’s very good at making alliances and she has the ability to manage men, which is very important.”

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There are certain similarities between her story and that of Lady Thatcher. They both came from outside the political elite, Merkel from the old East Germany, Thatcher from Lincolnshire, and they both trained as scientists before embarking on a career in politics.

Merkel is also known for being a tirelessly hard worker and a devil on the detail, as was the woman they called the Iron Lady. But while Merkel has a quiet authority and is a political pragmatist, Thatcher was more outspoken and domineering.

“She fitted the idea of the bossy, nanny figure, the woman in charge and she certainly played up to that, although she didn’t appoint a woman into a senior cabinet post. But she was helpful to women because she achieved a position of power and as a symbol that was very important because it broke down barriers.

“She showed people that you could be a woman and that you could also be tough and go to war and she proved that women could be just as good as men.”

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There are several other prominent female political figures on the world stage. Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s opposition leader, is a Nobel prize winner who has become a global symbol of peace and reconciliation, while Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, has become a pioneering human rights campaigner. Then there’s Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, who have risen to the top in testosterone-fuelled worlds.

But what about the UK? There’s a feeling among many people that successful female politicians are judged more on the way they look, than their ability to do the job. Ann Widdecombe was cruelly dubbed “Doris Karloff” and dismissed as a possible leader because she wasn’t deemed good-looking enough, and then we had “Blair’s babes”, the phrase used to describe the raft of new female Labour MPs in the late 90s.

Baroness Afshar says: “Male politicians aren’t judged on the way they look and their dress code isn’t scrutinized to the last detail, there is this pressure to conform and if you don’t it becomes very difficult.”

She says it’s also harder for women to be political leaders. “You need to have an iron will and to be persistent and committed, but it’s very hard because many women are working full time as mothers or carers. You either need to be very privileged and have the time and resources, or you need to be single.”

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When it comes to gender politics, Baroness Afshar believes we have a lot of catching up to do. “If you look at places like South East Asia you see women in leadership roles right across the board and it’s about their ability not their gender. So in this sense the West has a great deal to learn from the rest of the world.”