What do you notice about this picture? It is an image of the defence ministers of Germany, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, and they are all women.
At a security conference in Munich on Saturday, three of these women gathered to welcome the fourth: Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s new female defence minister. When they realised the power of an image of four defence ministers and no men in sight, Dutch minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert asked someone to take a photo of them on her phone, which she then posted on Twitter.
Sweden has had two previous female defence ministers and Norway has had four. The other two ministers in the photo, from the Netherlands and Germany, are the first women to hold that office in their country’s history.
The photo went viral as the world commented on the refreshing sight of four women in senior cabinet positions from four different countries. Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt tweeted the image with the comment “True Power Girls”, but was later attacked for his condescending tone.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert took the office of defence minister before she turned 40. She was elected to the European parliament at 30 and was a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism. She then became a member of the Dutch House of Representatives in 2010 and became the minister for defence in 2013.
“I don’t think the military officers that we work with see us any differently than if we were men. And if they do, they don’t show it. But there is a public debate about women taking more influential political roles, and that’s healthy,” she said.
Norway’s defence minister Ine Eriksen Søreide was first elected to the Norwegian House of Representatives in 2005. She moved from being the Chair of the Standing Committee on Education, Research and Church Affairs to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in 2013.
Sweden’s Karin Enström is the only one of the four who has military experience. Enstrom became a military officer in 1987 and currently holds the rank of captain in the Swedish Amphibious Corps. She has been representing Stockholm County in parliament since 2010 and was appointed minister of defence in 2012.
Germany’s first female defence minister Ursula von der Leyen has been heralded as a possible successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel (who was recently crowned the world’s most powerful woman) and regularly polls as one of the most popular politicians in the country. She was elected to parliament in 2003. She became the federal minister for family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth in 2005, federal minister for labour and social affairs in 2009 and minister for defence in 2013.
She has built much of her political career on her strong advocacy of paid parental leave.
So what does this image tell us?
Hennis-Plasschaert told the Guardian: “Neelie Kroes once said to me that old boys’ networks are the oldest form of cartels we have in Europe. She was right, but things are changing, and women can do similar things now.”