Isabelle Kürschner
Choose to Challenge
Are we heading towards a “new normal”? While the country has been successfully run by the most powerful woman in the world for almost sixteen years, Germany has never been …
Once Upon a Time, It Was a Man’s World: Women in Conservative Parties in Germany and the U.S.
With a gain of 7.7 percent or roughly four million electoral votes[1] in the recent federal elections, the German Christian Conservatives brought in the best results since 1990. That success …
German Family Policy and the Idea of “Wahlfreiheit”
At 3.1 percent of GDP, Germany spends far above the OECD average on family benefits, whereas the United States spends only 1.3 percent of its GDP on family benefits. However, differences in spending are not the only contrasts regarding family policy in Germany and the U.S., writes former DAAD/AICGS Fellow Dr. Isabelle Kürschner. They also differ significantly with respect to parental leave systems, maternal employment rates, and the number of children born in each country. Dr. Kürschner examines the distinctiveness of German family policy in this Transatlantic Perspectives essay.
