Annegret Kramp - Karrenbauer

Truly understands the work / life balance problem for women
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is Prime Minister of Saarland, Germany. Throughout her professional career, she has worked ceaselessly to support women’s rights, and these have reflected her various Ministerial roles. Gender equality issues, and, the abolishment of any form of discrimination, are key areas of her work. Her professional and voluntary engagements especially focus on the fields of the labour market, political participation, and gender based violence.
Examples are: her commitment to problems such as sexual violence against women, and her initiating the awareness campaign, “Say No to Forced Marriages”. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer also believes private companies will only employ females if there are quotas in place. As one of the first female politicians in Germany, she insisted on a compulsory quota for women in management positions. She also fought for higher pension entitlements for those women who gave birth to children decades ago. She believes there is a “justice gap, regarding the social protection of women”.This applies especially to older women, who rarely had the opportunities to reconcile family life and a professional career in the past.
It is time for the world to recognise young women’s skills
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauerbelieves that the best decisions in politics, industry, science, and other labour market sectors come from mixed teams – younger and older, men and women. This is why she champions “women in MINT professions” [MINT - Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Technology]. The demand for highly skilled female young academics in Germany is as high as never before. For instance, the proportion of female students in the first semester of Mechanical Engineering rose from 17.5% (2005) to 18.6% (2009)[1].
Initiatives such as the nationwide “Girls’ Day” [in 2013, Girls’ Day is on April 25th!], is one of many programmes helping young women, that Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has supported continuously over many years.
Navigating work and life balance on a personal level
She isa mother of three children, and through objective negotiation, has shown by example that the division of labour in women’s private lives can be equally shared between themselves, and their partners. After the birth of the first of her child she agree with her husband that, “Whoever earns more at a particular time shall be working full time.”