Does Germany need to introduce a quota for women? Oddly enough, Chancellor Merkel doesn't think so. Herself in her late fifties and childless, she suggested it should be left to companies to address the matter. Her attitude may have to do with the fact that she grew up in communist East Germany, where gender equality was more widespread, at least in the lower and middle echelons of the hierarchy, than in the West.

 In any case, Mrs Merkel is not interested in rectifying the sparse representation of women at a senior level, despite the revelation in a recent study that the proportion of female members on executive boards is just 3.2 per cent. Even her own party and cabinet are divided. Family Affairs Minister Kristina Schröder, who at 33 is one of the youngest ministers and is the first German woman ever to be pregnant while in office, took Mrs Merkel's side. But Ursula von der Leyen, Minister for Labour, a mother of seven, did support a quota, arguing that German industry had failed to deliver since voluntary measures were introduced a decade ago. The debate descended into farce when one of Germany's most prominent businessmen, Deutsche Bank's Josef Ackermann, rejected the idea of quotas, but made the Berlusconi-like proposition that more women should be appointed to top roles because this would make companies "more beautiful". 

Commentators were quick to suggest that the dearth of women executives was not only due to a lack of subsidised childcare, but to a culture which has traditionally idealised the caring mother and Hausfrau rather than the tough businesswoman. 

To me the whole debate seems hopelessly outdated and stale — not only the roles themselves, but even their discussion. For it is obvious that women must face up to the often uncomfortable task of challenging stereotypes. Every woman in a field dominated by male egos knows she has to fight a little war: a struggle that is all the more challenging because it is fought below the surface. It requires the audacity to put behind us the hackneyed phrases such as "feminine ideals" and "work-life balance" that still monopolise our tedious debates. What women need is not to plead for mandatory quotas, but to challenge the thinly-disguised new sexism of the Ackermanns. In other words, balls for women.