As minister for family affairs, von der Leyen managed to push through what many others didn't even dare talk about in Germany: laws that made clear that raising a child is as much a father's job as it is a mother's. She successfully rebranded "maternity leave" as "parental leave" — no mean feat in a country where for a long time having a family meant the fathers go to work and women do the care-taking. [...]
She also fought for better day care for children, so women wouldn't have to decide between a career and a family. And she insisted gender balance in child raising is not just a women's issue: “Men want to be accepted as active fathers.” She started to talk about measures that would include men in “care work” and help women better reintegrate into the workforce. [...]
Von der Leyen was strong enough politically to weather the storm, partly because she always had Merkel's support. Germany's first female chancellor never wanted to be called a feminist, and so left feminism to von der Leyen, who used the spotlight to put forward the controversial concept of the "conservative feminist." The emancipation of women, she claimed, had to become a conservative project if the party wanted to stay in touch with the pace of social change and with its voters. [...]
But there's no denying that it was von der Leyen — whatever her personal privileges — who delivered breakthrough changes for average middle-class women in Germany. She was also ahead of her time in highlighting that poverty poses a huge problem particularly for women in Germany.
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