In a SPIEGEL interview, German Family Minister Kristina Schröder, 33, of the conservative Christian Democrats, discusses the shortcomings of feminism, how she plans to help disadvantaged schoolboys and why women don't want wimps as partners. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Frau Schröder, we took a look at your high school newspaper. 
 
 Schröder: Oh God, here we go 
 
 SPIEGEL: It contains a sentence in which you say you never want to become a feminist. What was so bad about them? 
 
 Schröder: Nothing, but I don't agree with a core statement by most feminists, the statement by Simone de Beauvoir: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." Even as a schoolgirl I wasn't convinced by the claim that gender has nothing to do with biology and is only shaped by one's environment. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Did you have real feminists in your school? 
 
 Schröder: Of course. My best friend for example still believes in the thesis I mentioned, she teaches feminist theory at university and still votes for the Greens. But that of course doesn't change the fact that she is and will remain my best friend. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Were there other differences, for example regarding the clothes you wore? 
 
 Schröder: I never wanted to express my independence by dressing in a particularly masculine way or appear particularly boyish. For me emancipation will only be truly reached if a woman can wear makeup and skirts without having her abilities doubted as a result. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Did you wear miniskirts and high heels when you were a school girl? 
 
 Schröder: That's not my style but I have indeed always liked to dress in a feminine way. 
 
 SPIEGEL: And you were never worried that by doing so you were submitting to the clothing rules of a patriarchal society? 
 
 Schröder: To be honest: No! 
 
 SPIEGEL: What do you think about (prominent German feminist) Alice Schwarzer? 
 
 Schröder: I have read a lot of her work -- first "The Little Difference," later "The Big Difference" and "The Answer." I found all these book very well argued and worth reading. But I found that many of her theories went too far. For example that heterosexual intercourse was barely possible without the submission of the woman. I can only say to that: Sorry, that's wrong. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Why? 
 
 Schröder: It is absurd if something that is fundamental for humanity and for its survival should in itself be defined as submission. That would mean that society can't carry on without the submission of women. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Did you think feminists fundamentally oppose relationships between men and women? 
 
 Schröder: There was indeed a radical movement that argued in this way and saw being lesbian as a solution. I didn't find it very convincing that homosexuality should be the solution to the problem of women being disadvantaged. 
 
 SPIEGEL: What do you think: has feminism made women happier? 
 
 Schröder: Good question. I think that the early feminism at least overlooked the fact that partnership and children can provide happiness. It isn't the only way but for very many people it is the most important way. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Is there such a thing as conservative feminism? 
 
 Schröder: Such artificial terms don't mean much to me. For me conservatism means accepting reality. The Left wants to re-educate people. We acknowledge that there are differences, also between men and women. 
 
 SPIEGEL: One of your first acts in office was to set up a department for the victims of feminism. 
 
 Schröder: I'm sorry but there is no department with such a name in my ministry. 
 
 SPIEGEL: A department for boys. Who gave you this funny idea? 
 
 Schröder: What's funny about it? I always thought we have badly neglected issues concerning boys and men. It's a fact that it used to be Catholic working class girls from rural areas who had the biggest problems in school. Now it's boys from low-education backgrounds. 
 
 SPIEGEL: How would you like to help boys? 
 
 Schröder: I want to make sure for example that there are more male staff in nurseries and elementary schools. Boys brought up by single mothers often don't get to see a man, either in the nursery or elementary school, until they're 12 years old. 
 
 SPIEGEL: Is that so bad? 
 
 Schröder: Yes. If one assumes that men and women are different then there's a lot to suggest that children benefit from being with both genders. For example a friend of mine who is a single mother keeps telling me that her little daughter wants to spend a lot of time with people she knows, uncles and brothers. She simply lacks a father figure in her everyday life. 
 
 SPIEGEL: What other help can boys be given? 
 
 Schröder: We must review what is taught in nurseries and schools to assess if fit takes enough account of the needs of boys. To put it in an exaggerated way: do we give enough dictation with football stories? That interests boys. Or is always just about butterflies and ponies? 
 
 SPIEGEL: Apparently they often deal with butterflies. 
 
 Schröder: It's a fact that boys are worse at school than girls, more of them go to secondary modern schools (the lowest tier of high school in Germany), and they have to repeat the school year more often. 
 
 SPIEGEL: That's nice of you. 
 
 Schröder: That's just the way I am. 
 
 SPIEGEL: We had the impression that men get along quite well without your help. Of the 185 management board members of DAX-listed blue chip companies in Germany, 181 are men. 
 
 Schröder: But I think it would be really rotten to tell boys that schools won't cater for them properly because men have unquestionably been dominant for thousands of years. A feminism that deliberately neglects boys is immoral in my opinion. 

 Germany's leading feminist campaigner and its minister for families, pensioners and women have locked horns over the role of feminism in relationships and the workplace, unsparingly attacking each other's views in a row that has escalated into a nationwide debate. 
 
 Alice Schwarzer, considered the country's foremost women's rights campaigner, labelled Kristina Schröder "hopeless" and "incompetent" after Schröder said she thought some of her views were wrong. 
 
 Schröder, 33, of the Christian Democratic union, was recruited by Angela Merkel and became the youngest woman ever in a German cabinet. She told Der Spiegel that she could not agree with certain views expressed by Schwarzer, including that "heterosexual sex was hardly possible without the subjugation of women". 
 
 Schröder said: "It's absurd to define something that is vital to the survival of humanity as subjugation." She said she was unconvinced by the feminist argument that rejecting heterosexual relationships in favour of homosexuality was a "solution to the disadvantage to women", and blamed boys' underperformance in school on the disproportionate number of female carers and teachers. She also rejected the idea of quotas to improve the standing of women in the workplace. 
 
 Schwarzer, 67, author of feminist books such as The Little Difference and its Huge Consequences" and publisher of the feminist magazine Emma, hit back in an open letter, accusing Schröder of using "cheap cliches" about "the most momentous social movement of the 20th century" and said she had not known whether she "should laugh or cry" when she read the interview. She said Schröder was "regurgitating pub talk of the 1970s", but "the pub talk in 2010 is more advanced than you – much more". 
 
 Schwarzer added that Schröder, who has been in her post for a year, had the feminist movement to thank for the fact that she was in her job at all. But she said the only noteworthy news to have emerged from her ministry concerned her name change after her recent marriage, and accused her of having done nothing to further the rights of women. 
 
 Schwarzer went on to attack Schröder's evaluation that some women were to blame for the fact they earned less than men because they studied the wrong subjects, and her initiative to encourage boys to perform better at school. Schwarzer said such a policy was unnecessary when "out of 185 bosses of Dax companies [those listed on the stock exchange], 181 are male". 
 
 The debate quickly drew sharp responses from leading German female politicians. Renate Künast, Green party candidate for Berlin mayor, said she was "flabbergasted" by Schröder's views, which she said were "crude" and "fuddy-duddy". 
 
 Manuela Schwesig, deputy chair of the Social Democrats, said Schröder "should be reminded that at the start of the 1970s, women still needed written permission [from their husbands] to take a job. Without the feminist movement, Schröder would not be a minister today." 
 
 But Silvana Koch-Mehrin, vice-president of the European parliament and a leading member of the Free Democratic party, the junior coalition partner in the government, said Schröder's views deserved recognition because "we've moved way beyond the classical definition of feminism", to an age when "equal society means that men and women have the chance to follow the same path in life". 
 
 Schröder responded to Schwarzer's letter today (Tues), by accusing her of "failing to read the interview properly" and saying it was "a shame" she had "had to deliver such a personal attack on me".
– A female clash of the titans has erupted in Germany over one of the nation's top feminist's declaration that heterosexual sex is, well, sexist. "Heterosexual sex is hardly possible without the subjugation of women," leading women's rights advocate Alice Schwarzer, 67, says in her classic feminist tome. Now a German minister has blasted the comments as "absurd" and attacked several feminist strategies for improving women's standing in society. "It's absurd that something fundamental for humanity and its survival should be defined as submission," Minister for Families Kristina Schröder, 33, tells Der Speigel. Schröder, the youngest woman ever to serve in the German cabinet, also said she opposes workforce quotas for women, and blames their poor career choices for their lower standing in jobs. "Women need to get tough," she added. Schwarzer ripped her as "hopeless" and "incompetent" in an open letter after the interview, reports the Guardian. A number of female politicians have sided with Schwarzer, with one calling Schröder's views "fuddy duddy." Another said Schröder deserves to be heard because "we've moved way beyond the classical definition of feminism."