Carla Kriwet will become CEO of the dialysis provider Fresenius Medical Care – making her the second woman alongside Merck boss Belén Garijo to lead one of the 40 Dax companies. Two out of 40: What sounds like a message from 1980 is actually a message from May 2022. That could actually end this comment. Because everything has been said.
For decades, women have been fighting to be treated in politics and business, in terms of wages and pensions, in the same way that the gentlemen claim to be treated as a matter of course and as required by the Basic Law. Women take to the streets, they write essays, leaflets and bills, and yet their successes remain rare: Whether it’s the room temperature in the office, the height of supermarket shelves, the dummy measurements in the car crash test – everything is calibrated as if it were there there are only men in the world.
One of the main reasons for this scandal is that every generation of women starts the fight from the beginning. Despite their mothers telling them otherwise, many women in their early 20s believe the world is their oyster. And who would blame them: On average, they are more diligent, more educated and more productive than men, and there is nothing to prevent them from being able to do it on their own. Nor do they want to be accused of needing laws and quotas that give every promotion an air of patronage.
Mothers have to watch as even the most inept men sprint past them professionally
The reality is: The sheer fact that a woman can get pregnant, that she doesn’t belong to a male network, that she’s less loud “Here!” screams as the gentleman in the side office, destroys all initial advantages. When there really is a child, many mothers struggle between child and career and have to watch as their own income and pension entitlements are lost and even the most incompetent men sprint past them professionally. It is a backlog that can never be recovered.
Many women who were against the quota at 20 are therefore in favor of it at 50. Kriwet is one of them. Because one thing is clear: the patriarchy will not give up power voluntarily. Rather, women (and well-disposed men) must fight for their part, even enforce it, and no longer allow generations to be played off against one another.
The state must stand by them, for example by introducing 50 percent quotas, for example for Dax board members. But quotas are just a tool. What is more decisive is that raising children, yes, all that tedious work, is distributed more evenly between the sexes and rewarded differently. This requires pressure, laws, financial incentives. Only when the question of whether someone is physically able to have a child no longer plays a role in promotion and other life decisions can the rate drop.
Two out of 40: That sounds like a joke in 2022. It’s none. It’s reality.