SPECIAL REPORT

Posted Sunday, January 22, 2006; 10.33GMT
Margret Wintermantel, 58, president of the University of Saarland, says that little effort has been made to accommodate women with children in the scientific research community. Unforgiving hours exacerbate the problem. "It's like a race you cannot win unless you are always there," she says. Elke Geenen, 51, knows what that feels like. After finishing her geology degree, she switched to the social sciences because of jibes from male students. They would ask us, "What kind of women are you to study geology?," says Geenen, now a lecturer in sociology at the University of Kiel. "We were deemed too physically weak to carry the tools and instruments," she says. "In the end, I just couldn't bear that kind of treatment, nor the prospect of later working in an environment that would be just as hostile." Heike Maria Kunstmann, 39, director general of the Berlin-based Gesamtmetall, the employers' association for the metal and electrical industry, says she wanted to study science but steered clear because the subject is "considered to be so ur-male." She opted for microeconomics instead.

Granted, the Schönberger sisters, Geenen and Kunstmann all completed their studies years ago. So did Merkel, who earned a Ph.D. in physics at Leipzig University. So have things now changed? Less than you might think. Sarah Steinmann, 27, is just finishing her graduate degree in math at Bonn University. There are 728 students on her course; only 196 are women. "By and large, the professors didn't have anything against female students," she says. "In fact, some seemed to prefer the female students since they consider them to be less lazy." In that, the teachers are correct; female students of math and the sciences complete their studies faster than their male counterparts. The trouble starts at graduation. "For the guys, there is hardly ever any question that they are going to do a Ph.D. after the diploma exams," says Steinmann. "The girls, however, will debate with themselves whether it's possible to both do a Ph.D. and have a baby." Steinmann herself cops to the dilemma. "If I go on to do a Ph.D.," she says, "it'll take me around four years to complete it. I don't think it would then make sense to stay home and have kids. So it's either kids or an academic career for me."

What can be done? Merkel's government has already made some modest proposals to ease life for working mothers — and fathers. Keeping alive a pledge made by Schröder's Social Democratic Party, the new government promised to add 230,000 additional places for children under 3 in creches, kindergartens or home day care by 2010. Merkel has also mooted introducing a 12-month allowance for parents who stay at home during the first year of their child's life. But such measures may not be enough to persuade Steinmann's generation to reconsider combining career and children. Nor has the government yet given a lead on how to tackle institutional and social prejudices against women in the workplace.

Time's interviewees had views on what might bring about a change of culture. Bierach, the author, emphasized the need for equal access to education: "Women in leading positions all come from families where education is gender blind. They all have had a fantastic education," she says. Hewlett-Packard's Stachelhaus advises women to look for jobs in companies and sectors where women are already well represented. Kunstmann suggests that women who want to make their way to the top should not "try to behave like a man. Dare to be different, to be a woman."

Yet in the teeth of deep-rooted cultural beliefs and social habits, such advice won't be enough. Still, it doesn't hurt. Consider the new Chancellor. Merkel was "smarter, more cooperative" than Schröder in the election, says Luise Pusch, a linguistics professor. "The more frequently she is in the media spotlight, the more her style of communication will catch on." In fact, to some extent, it already has. The Chancellor's quiet attention to detail and instinctive quest for consensus, once identified as weaknesses by political commentators, are now approvingly dubbed the "Merkel method." "She's plenty capable," says another new admirer, President Bush. "She's got a kind of spirit to her that is appealing." Spirit and political savvy are what she'll need to prove herself more than just a role model for German women. And if her government creates better opportunities for women, the whole country will benefit.

With reporting by William Boston and Regine Wosnitza/Berlin, Julia Mason/Paris, Ulla Plon/Copenhagen, Ursula Sautter/Bonn and Elaine Shannon/Washington

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