Do we need a mothers' quota?
A guest contribution by Aura-Shirin Riedel and Sarah Zöllner. Only one-third of the members of the Bundestag are women. At the state and local political levels, the situation is even worse. As a result, the female perspective is massively underrepresented in politics. Initiatives are therefore calling for a mandatory gender quota in politics. Do we also need a mothers' quota?
Politics benefits from the female perspective
Political decisions are a matter of power dynamics. Even before motions are put to a vote, the majorities in the committees decide whether they will be adopted or not. If a particular group is overrepresented in these committees, it is highly likely that their interests will be reflected in the decisions made.
Even though women and men are equal before the law, their lived realities are not. In everyday life, women are more frequently confronted with sexism, violence, and marginalization. Above all, however, they are more deeply embedded in social and family contexts than men. By the time they start a family, if not sooner, women's everyday experiences still differ significantly from those of men. While men remain more strongly integrated into the professional sphere, women are responsible for the majority of care work. Consequently, the economy and politics continue to be shaped and defined from a predominantly male perspective.
To overcome this situation alone, we need more people in politics who share the female experience and offer new solutions. It becomes problematic when that very imbalance in power dynamics prevents this. Equality policy measures like the gender quota are therefore a tool that acts like a crowbar to open the doors of politics that have been closed to women.
Misogyny in everyday political life
Especially in very conservative circles of society, there has long been resistance to a gender quota in business and politics. However, equality is not a "nice to have," but has been part of our constitution for over seventy years.
Yet that does not seem to have reached all (male) decision-makers. It wasn't long ago that women in the Bundestag plenary were often referred to as "important support" rather than as equal politicians. The AfD, with its aggressive anti-feminism, takes this even further. In a 2021 SPIEGEL survey, 69 percent of female politicians said they had experienced "misogynistic hate as members of the Bundestag." 64 percent received such emails and letters. 36 percent experienced "attacks on themselves, their offices, or their homes." Half had to involve the Bundestag administration or the police, and nearly a third increased security measures at events. They identified the far-right faction as the source of the hostility. Overall, the atmosphere in the Bundestag has become more misogynistic due to the AfD.
Such a climate naturally makes it no easier for women to enter political committees and participate on an equal footing. The figures from parties that have already introduced a gender quota show that it actually helps to increase the proportion of women. Leading the way are the Greens, who enshrined parity in their party statutes in the 1970s. Here, the proportion of women is even slightly higher, at over 59 percent. This is followed by nearly 54 percent for the Left Party and 48 percent for the SPD. In the conservative-liberal factions, where gender quotas are not mandatory, the power dynamics are significantly skewed: only a quarter of FDP members are female. The Union parties reach just under 24 percent. The AfD brings up the rear with 11.5 percent. On average, this means 65 percent of all Bundestag members are male.
Gender quota as a first step toward more equality
A mandatory gender quota is also an important political measure to break up the "old boys' networks" that, for example, long existed in the executive and supervisory boards of German companies. After the successful introduction of a 30 percent gender quota for supervisory boards in 2015, a regulation for the executive boards of the most important German DAX companies followed in 2021. For the first time, there are now more German listed companies with women on their executive boards than those with all-male boards. This is confirmed by a new study from the German-Swedish Allbright Foundation. However, this does not hide the sad fact that companies are merely meeting the minimum requirement. 71 of the 94 companies with mixed teams in top management have only a single woman on the board. In Germany, there are actually more CEOs named Christian than there are female CEOs in total. The share of women here is only 2.5 percent.
To return to politics: the famous "quota woman" changes almost nothing about the underlying conditions. At most, she serves as an alibi for a system that is fundamentally male-dominated, structurally favors men, and systematically places them in decision-making positions. If we are to have a quota, it must be based on parity—that is, 50 percent and nothing less. But not all women benefit equally from a gender quota. Especially for mothers, whose time resources are particularly scarce, the question of political participation cannot be answered by a quota alone. So, do we not need a mothers' quota instead?
Creating framework conditions that account for care work
Precisely because we live in a system permeated by male structures, it is valid to ask whether a gender quota alone is enough to break these structures. Women must first be enabled to reach positions in politics and business. Otherwise, in case of doubt, only those women who are not or barely involved in family and care work will benefit from the quota. As a result, the aspects and experiences that differ most strongly from those of men remain excluded. Despite the gender quota, the entire female perspective thus only flows into political decision-making to a small extent.
"A gender quota alone does not really help mothers," says Prof. Dr. Bettina Kohlrausch, Scientific Director of the WSI at the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, in our book "Mütter. Macht. Politik – Ein Aufruf!" (Mothers. Power. Politics – A Call to Action!). Whether women who have to balance career and family reach important decision-making positions depends on the framework conditions they find for doing so. With the "part-time leadership" model, for example, women and mothers would be in a position to reach roles where they can make important decisions. However, we cannot regulate everything by law, Kohlrausch noted in our conversation. In the political sphere, in particular, what is needed above all is a culture that consistently considers care work:
"For example, there are considerations in politics to introduce a free Sunday. That would certainly be a relief for female politicians with small children. Or that the local party branch doesn't meet at seven in the evening. That's when parents are putting their children to bed. In the end, it is, of course, a cultural question whether care work is just as naturally taken into account as paid work. The local branch meeting doesn't take place on Wednesday at ten because everyone is working then. But if we say we are including care work, it will be reflected in many small decisions that cannot all be regulated by legislation."
In structures that provide no room for care work, women hit glass ceilings, especially in middle age. Ultimately, the question of work-life balance is far more significant for feminist politics than a gender quota.
Anyone who wants diversity needs a "mothers' quota"
We therefore need external conditions that enable every talented woman, regardless of whether she is currently caring for children or relatives, to hold political office. We need good and reliable childcare structures and informal rules that comprehensively take care work into account. Instead of throwing breastfeeding mothers out of the state parliament, as actually happened in Thuringia in 2018, we must create spaces that do not exclude women with their children. Not least, this would benefit everyone who relies on flexibility outside of core working hours, such as family caregivers or people with irregular working hours. We need the perspective of mothers in the public sphere to break down structures toward more equality. Fundamentally, we need a quota that forces us to change the framework conditions in committees and make politics not just more female, but truly open to everyone—including those who care for others every day.
Authors
Sarah Zöllner, author specializing in family and social issues
Aura-Shirin Riedel, sociologist and journalist
Initiative
Instagram: @muetter-macht-politik
FB: Mütter_Macht_Politik
Sources
[iv] Interview with Prof. Dr. Bettina Kohlrausch. From: Mütter. Macht. Politik. – Ein Aufruf! 2023, Magas-Verlag
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