The Social Democrats had some very capable women in their own ranks, and the good old boys, (Schröder, Gabriel, etc.) made sure they never rose beyond a few insignificant cabinet positions. Most of the German media knew better. Ingrid Matthäus-Meier of the SPD was frequently interviewed in German TV news not because of her gender, but because she was one of the few SPD people who talked straight and concisely when asked a question. I only met her once, but she was in jeans in a train on the way back to Bonn from some conference in Brussels, and she was definitely the brightest star in their sky for a while--not that it did her career any good. My wife was a reliable SPD voter for decades, and just gave up for exactly this reason. The SPD had become a stagnant old boys' club--literally. This is not the German media's fault. They played along for a while, but Schröder's antics--both as Chancellor and afterward--just got too outrageous to ignore. One of the biggest cult pop hits of 15 years ago (more or less) was an "oom-pah" march put together from a clip of Schröder whining over an open microphone "someone get me a bottle of beer, or I'm going on strike, and not writing anything any more."
Merkel rose to the candidacy of the CDU in spite of, and not because of the fact that the CDU was also lacking in star power at the top. The men near the top of the CDU figured she'd have enough after one term, and they could put one of their own old boys' club in the chancellor's position. Oops. Merkel may LOOK like you mom's third grade teacher, but she's smart, does her homework, and knows the ways of life in parliament. Now look at them. They have exactly zero men who present a competent personality worth presenting to the German public successor. They thought they'd extinguish the career of Ursula Von Der Leyen by making her defense minister, but she took to her new position with just as much energy as she did her old cabinet post of Family Minister, and she is now the one most talked about as Merkel's successor as the CDU's next candidate for Chancellor. NONE of the other parties are offering a credible alternative at this point. It should be pointed out that the German CDU is NOT their equivalent to our Republicans. The closest thing the Germans have to our Republicans these days is the NPD, who, for the most part, are somewhere between shunned and banned at this point.
The comedy people in Germany have given up on Merkel by now because they realize that the joke was on them. The Germans chose competence over gender stereotypes. It stood to reason that we'd catch up eventually.
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