Study reveals clichés: he is successful, she is successful and mom is successful

The EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has seven children. We know that because it is constantly discussed. In all Boulevard interviews to women's magazines and great political weekly sheets, she is asked about her role as a mother. In her time as a minister, she was once asked by a moderator in the WDR program "Hard but fair": "Have you already decided-do you want to be a bad mother?"

How many children has NATO general secretary Mark Rutte? No idea. His Wikipedia article says nothing and there are no interviews in which he is asked for educational tips. He could have ten children at home and nobody would be interested. Why too? He is NATO general secretary that is enough. And he is a man. Atthe family situation is discussed twice as often in the media as with their male colleagues. This is the result of three researchers from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

The researchers evaluated tens of thousands of articles from national daily newspapers. It was noticed that when written about managers, terms such as "mother" or "child" often fall. In men, on the other hand, words from the areas of "economy" and "leadership" are chosen. In interviews, women often have to spread their entire family situation before they can then talk about their professional topics-but there is less time for that than in men in top positions.

But when top managers are constantly talking about their mother role, the picture arises that a lot of them have children and a family. However, according to the researchers, this does not correspond to reality at all. On the contrary: According to the DIW, managers are less frequently married and less often live with children in a household than men in management positions.

But the picture of the manager mother is not only wrong, but also harmful. It leads to female leadership often associated with care and family orientation, while men are more likely to be attributed to ambition and assertiveness. "One consequence may be that not only companies are less likely to consider women for certain positions, but that women do not trust themselves less and do not even or at least less often go to certain career paths," says Diw researcher Virginia special money.

But why is the topicThe focus of the interviews and portraits of managers? Virginia Special money suspects that good and maybe even feminist views are behind it. This is to show how women can reconcile family and career. "Accordingly, I believe that women are presented here as role models in this regard," says special money. Unfortunately, in the end, women harm more than they use.

Nevertheless, the board of directors in the largest German commercial enterprises are becoming increasingly feminine: According to the "manager's barometer" of the DIW, the proportion of women there has continued to increase slightly last year. In the meantime, 19 percent of all board positions in the 200 -sales companies outside the financial sector are dressed by women. That is about one and a half percentage points more than in the previous year. In addition, more and more companies would now bring at least one second woman to their board. Every third member is now a woman on the supervisory boards.