The strange doubts about Annalena Baerbock
Germany needs a new picture of the family – urgently!
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Can a mother of two be chancellor? The usual suspects from the conservative corner express doubts about this. Probably because they know how much of the care work they leave to their wives themselves.
Wiebke Tomescheit
For the first time, with the Greens, a party has nominated a woman as candidate for chancellor who is young enough to have children in need of care. Annalena Baerbock, 40, is the mother of a ten- and a six-year-old daughter. Like countless other women in Germany, she juggles a demanding job and a demanding family life. And like countless men – because in 2021 childcare is definitely no longer just a woman’s business. The questions, doubts and comments of those who cannot imagine that a mother can also be a chancellor are correspondingly inappropriate and significant.
It can be assumed that the skeptics do not primarily have a problem with a young mother, but more generally a problem with a woman in such a high position. This can be seen in how Angela Merkel was often approached – because she has no children of her own (although her husband’s two sons are part of the family). The Chancellor was therefore called “cool”, accused of being unable to understand the problems of parents and families, of being too objective and unemotional. Nevertheless, no one was afraid to call her “Mutti” flippantly.
Women just can’t get it right
At Baerbock it is said that because of the bond with her daughters, she may be too emotional, not cool and factual enough. That the priority may not always be fully on their professional duties when a sick child is waiting at home. And, of course: Of course it is difficult to reconcile family and job. The Green politician herself called it a “balancing act” and said one of her motivations for going into politics was to finally make it a little easier for mothers in their professional lives. But even if it is harder than average for mothers to assert themselves in a demanding job, it can be done. Millions of successful women show this every day.
The requirement to always have to give 100 percent for the job is nonsense anyway. Even in the case of a Chancellor. Because when it comes to sensible adults with a solid upbringing, you never work alone, but have a capable team around you that you trust and that can step in when the family needs you more urgently. Everyone who works with good colleagues knows this principle. So every task is done in the best possible way, you support each other, you help each other. That must also be possible in top politics. Of course, it only works if your own ego and possible career steps are not the main motivation for this job.
Adults should be able to work in a team
Annalena Baerbock has – among others in Robert Habeck – fair colleagues who can support her on the job if in doubt. A good team, a solid network – that is extremely valuable. And she also has a partner at home who is sure to take on his fair share of the work: her husband Daniel. Because, watch out, in 2021 childcare will no longer be a woman’s business. A family ideally has more than one parent and both are capable adults who defy the conventions of the past and who can and should finally distribute the family care work fairly. The “housewife” who takes care of the household and children during the day and has no other job is almost nonexistent today. When two full-time adults start a family, it is simply absurd to leave the care of the children to the mother alone. Those days should really be over.
One example – perhaps reassuring for doubters – that shows how well a country can be governed by a young mother is New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Adern is also 40, had a daughter during her tenure and is currently ruling a country with the most diverse cabinet in history in which the corona virus no longer exists. But perhaps the greatest fear of the skeptics is not that Annalena Baerbock, as possible chancellor, might actually not be up to the task. Rather, it is more that it refutes all these outdated prejudices disguised as “worries”. That it shows the Germans how much we have to rethink things about family policy, the economy and equality.
Because, as has often been read on social media in the past hours and days: You would not have asked a man that. And that’s actually all that needs to be said about it.
This article originally appeared on stern.de.