The Parliament and its Representation Gaps

The Federal Constitutional Court is to review the legality of the 2025 federal election — specifically with regard to the underrepresentation of women* – in other words, the male dominance in parliament. Only 32.4% of the members in the new Bundestag are women.

The organization Parité in den Parlamenten is filing an election review complaint, with Prof. Dr. Silke Laskowski serving as legal counsel.

At herCAREER, we are committed to equal participation of women and female-identifying individuals in business, academia, and decision-making bodies. Naturally, we support the idea of a gender-balanced Bundestag!

What’s behind this?
The proportion of women* in parliament has dropped again (the highest point was in 2013 at 37%). According to ZEIT ONLINE, this is largely due to the rise of the CDU/CSU and the AfD. In the CDU/CSU, only 23% of MPs are women, and in the AfD just 12%. Silke Laskowski says about these parties: “They favor men in their candidate selections and hold back women – this violates their right to equal opportunities in candidacy.” The Greens have 61% women MPs, The Left 56%, and the SPD 42%.

There have been attempts to pass a gender parity law, which, according to SPD’s Katja Mast, repeatedly failed due to resistance from the CDU/CSU and AfD.

Why does this matter?
According to Laskowski, the lack of gender parity results in a “male gaze” dominating the Bundestag. “That means issues relevant to women and perspectives important to their life realities are either downplayed or disappear altogether. (…) The more women entered the Bundestag, the more women’s issues were addressed.”
Katja Mast calls the decline in the proportion of women “an alarming development that clearly shows the gender equality setbacks caused by conservative and far-right parties.”
Federal President Steinmeier said on International Women’s Day: “If our democracy has a problem with women, then our country has a problem with democracy.”
Meanwhile, women from the CDU and CSU have written a letter to their Parliamentary Secretary demanding gender parity in top positions in the Bundestag and in the new federal government.

And there’s more:
Other societal groups are also underrepresented in the Bundestag — people with migration backgrounds, disabilities, younger generations, those from eastern states, from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, and non-academics. Their lack of representation also negatively affects political decision-making.
“As members of parliament are supposed to represent ‘the entire population,’” writes Jutta Allmendinger in her Tagesspiegel column, “it’s no coincidence that we speak of a representative democracy. Yet there are no requirements.” Party candidates are not selected representatively, which means voters can only make limited choices. However, seeing your own interests represented is essential to “build trust and connection to politics – and to democracy itself. Diversity is anything but ‘woke.’ Let’s use this moment to position ourselves better for the next election.”

You too?
Support the constitutional complaint! The more people who sign the power of attorney for the legal counsel by April 23, 2025, the more weight the petition will carry.

Posted by Natascha Hoffner,Founder & CEO of herCAREER | Recipient of the FTAfelicitas Award from Femtec.Alumnae e.V. | LinkedIn Top Voice 2020 | Editor of the “Women of the Year” books published by Callwey Verlag
posted on LinkedIn on 10.04.2025