Women and politics – a personal view

In the March issue of Her Edit, we looked at the political landscape internationally and the extent to which women have parity in the political process. Here, Linda Schinagl, aged 29, gives her personal perspective.  She is a mother of two and lives in Leipzig.

I always go to elections because I see it as an achievement of society, that should not be ignored. Actually I never really thought about going to vote as a woman, but as an individual having a choice between parties and people with certain biographies and backgrounds. Yet it is important to me that women of my favored party receive the possibility to participate in politics. That’s why I’d rather elect women – even though I don’t believe them to be necessarily better in politics than their male counterparts.
Of course everyone of us can ask him or herself whether women should have more equal access to power as men.

Probably most women don’t go into politics because they believe that they wouldn’t manage the whole responsibility – not just because of their own family, but also in the way we are socially and culturally raised. Whereas men have  learned how to sell themselves – even though they know it might be inadequate – the communication of most women is different. I don’t think that women only achieve success by copying male patterns of communication or how much harder women have to work to succeed in high positions, but what I really hope for the future is that we don’t need any special tactics to convince anyone that women should equal access to political power, so that every politician – male and female – can concentrate on  what’s really important.
With regard to Angela Merkel it is somehow awkward that she has to present herself as a mother to the nation to win the election. For me she is rather an outstanding person in politics because she’s one of the few Eastgermans (which are highly stigmatized).