I'd like to use the relative calm on the euro front (before the next storm) as an opportunity to ponder the sparsity of women economists among leading economic and financial policymakers in Germany. That is the reason why I came up with only one woman's name for a leading policy role in my
economic shadow government: not surprisingly, as minister for labor and social policy, a traditionally female role.
The Status Quo
With the exception of chancellor Merkel and the Left (Die Linke), there are no women in leading economic or financial policymaker roles in Germany, neither in the Bundestag (the upper house of the German parliament), nor in the Bundesrat (the lower house), nor on the European level.
As the leader of the most powerful economy in the eurozone, chancellor Merkel has the last word in European economic policymaking. She is, however, no trained economist and mostly follows the advice of her all-male economic policy team, most of them with outdated, dogmatic, or no academic training in economics and/or finance [1] which partly explains her idealization of the budgeting skills of Schwabian housewives and her insistence on the macro-economically non-sensical austerity policies in the Southern periphery.
Merkel's main opposition parties SPD and the Greens boast a number of women economists in the Bundestag and Bundesrat, yet appointed NO women to visible economic or financial policy leadership roles. The only exception is the Left with Sarah Wagenknecht, a trained economist, as deputy party leader. She frequently writes columns on economic policy issues and is often invited to talk shows and public economic policy discussions.
Women economists are desperately needed to improve economic and financial policymaking
Following the near collapse of the world economy due to the mis-management of a male-dominated financial sector, it ought to be in the interest of ALL to appoint more women economists and financiers to high-level economic and financial policy and management posts.
This is particularly true for Germany, a country where several of the largest German banks suffered huge losses which had to be covered by taxpayers, and where only 2% of the top management posts are held by women. The possibility that there could be a correlation between the mis-performance of Germany's (and other country's) financial sector and the 98% male quota in banks' top management is not as far-fetched as many self-respecting male may think: a
study by John Coates, former Wall Street trader turned senior research fellow in neuroscience and finance at the University of Cambridge, found that "
hormones such as testosterone are responsible for driving young male traders to take increasingly ill-calculated risks that turn bull markets into bubbles and even financial crises." That alone should be a more than sufficient reason for appointing more women to high-level financial and economic posts.
But there's more: While Germany's predominantly male 'elite' constantly and very publicly complains about the low birth rates among German-born women, the fact that single mothers constitute the largest group among the poor in Germany is never addressed in the equally male-dominated mainstream media. The obvious correlation between the poverty-risk of childrearing and low birth rates in Germany has been ignored for years. Instead, Germany's policymakers spend billions of €uros of taxpayer money for child care subsidies, even child-rearing 'salaries' (the so-called Elterngeld), as well as PR on the joys of parenthood. A second important reason why Germany needs female economic policymakers in leadership positions !
The third reason: the (lack of) quality of financial and economic policymaking in the eurozone.
Whenever a woman's quota is being discussed in Germany to force men to give up a portion of their privileged positions to women, the age-old chestnut about a lack of qualified women candidates is being trotted out. Or, if that doesn't work because young women with better university diplomas than men are overwhelming the labor market, the already aging chestnut about
how it takes time for these women to move them up the career ladder (see Heiner Thorborg's CEO initiative), thus ensuring that it takes another 10-20 years before Germany's top management reaches the targeted quota of 30% women.
In view of the recent near collapse of the world economy, it is obvious that women can NOT possibly perform worse than men in financial and economc leadership positions. And so, for the benefit of us all, we might as well give ALL well-trained women economists and financiers, young and older, a chance NOW.
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[1] H
er finance minister Mr. Schäuble; her economics minister Mr. Rösler (a trained surgeon who caused a market panic when he suggested that Greece needed a debt reduction), Mr. Bruederle (economics speaker of her coalition partner FDP), and her powerful banker friends (Joe Ackermann and other chiefs of zombie banks).
