In the emotional and moral vacuum left by the Holocaust in West Germany, the church was a powerful force. In competition with the Communist East, where women were encouraged to work and leave their children in state nurseries within weeks of giving birth, the 14-year Christian Democratic reign of West Germany’s first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, institutionalized the old maxim of “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” — or “children, kitchen, church” — in a tax and education system that to this day nudges women out of full-time work.

Married couples pay a joint tax rate closer to the lower rate the two would pay individually. This effectively subsidizes income inequality between husband and wife, noted Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank. And most schools still end at lunchtime, which has sustained the stay-at-home-mother image of German lore.

To that, add a women’s movement that from 19th-century Social Democrats focused more on protecting women and mothers from harsh capitalism than on the fierce egalitarianism of American, British — or Soviet — counterparts.

“We are still very far from a situation where it’s as normal for women as for men to want both a career and family — even among young women,” said Angelika Dammann, the first and only female board member at software giant SAP. “When you have children, you’re expected to stay home for a significant period; otherwise you are considered a bad mother.”





RESISTING CHANGE?

Ms. Merkel has never used the chancellery as a pulpit for gender equality. Herself childless, she epitomizes the German career woman. The base of her party, Mr. Adenauer’s Christian Democrats, remains attached to conservative family values.

But the chancellor is also a child of East Germany, where women drove cranes. She is a physicist by training. She made her sympathies plain by appointing women like the outspoken Ursula von der Leyen, a mother of seven in favor of paternity leave and boardroom quotas, to her cabinet.

As family minister in Ms. Merkel’s first term, Ms. von der Leyen introduced a 14-month, generously paid shared parental leave in 2007. Two months are reserved for the father; if he does not take them, the government pays for only 12.