American women enjoy more leadership positions than their German counterparts - By Katja Ridderbusch

Experts say that German women face multiple hurdles in trying to reach top management positions or build successful businesses. These include gender stereotypes, educational tracks, wage inequalities and a lack of affordable childcare.

In the beginning, there was nothing but a piece of land somewhere deep in the U.S. state of Georgia's countryside and a neglected mansion. In the summer of 2002, the day when the bulldozers arrived to tear down old walls, the loan for the project had not yet been approved. But BB Webb had a dream.

One year later, Carl House, as the antebellum mansion is now called, opened as a unique event facility for weddings and business gatherings. Today, Carl House is a multi-million-dollar facility, and owner BB Webb, actress and entrepreneur, has received numerous awards for her creative business skills.

Is this a story only possible in America? It is indeed a fact that more women are entrepreneurs or in leadership positions in the United States than in Germany. About 40 percent of all businesses in the U.S. are owned by women compared to 28 percent in Germany. And women hold 46 percent of management positions in the U.S., compared to only 26 percent in Germany.

To date, 12 Fortune 500 companies are run by female CEOs, among them PepsiCo, Western Union, Xerox, the New York Times Company and Ebay. In contrast, none of the major publicly held companies in Germany has a female chief and only one has a female member on its executive board.

Experts have identified the multiple difficulties German women face in trying to reach top management positions or build successful businesses. Among them are gender stereotypes and preconceptions, lack of female role models, networking and mentoring.

On Sept. 29, this year's international businesswomen's conference, "Crossing Bridges," which started as an initiative of two sister cities, Nuremberg and Atlanta, in 2003, will be held in Nuremberg. Speakers from both sides of the Atlantic will discuss gender equality and intercultural differences.

Eva-Maria Roer, president of the German non-profit organization, Total E-Quality, says it is primarily the social and political environment that keeps women from reaching leadership positions in Germany. "Gender equality has been government policy in the U.S. for more than 30 years," she said.

However, Roer doesn't think that legally mandated gender equality would work for Germany. Alternatively, Total E-Quality awards companies and organizations that, in a model way, support equal opportunity. "We try to motivate companies and organizations to be proactive in terms of gender equality," Roer said.

Another reason for the low number of women entrepreneurs and top executives is that in Germany, many women find it hard to combine motherhood and professional careers. According to the latest German government statistics, only 27 percent of women with young children are part of the workforce; in the U.S., 59 percent of women with children under three years old are working.

In Germany, access to public daycare is limited and private daycare is expensive. German Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen has taken the political initiative by increasing the number of daycare facilities, public and private, and by subsidizing mothers who wish to enter, or reenter the workforce.

But government funding is only one solution to a growing problem, says Rocco Thiede, the Berlin based project manager of the "work-life-balance" study group at the Bertelsmann Foundation. "We also need more initiative from the private sector such as increasing the number of corporate daycare facilities," he said. The U.S., where most employers offer childcare, can serve as a role model, he added.

The problem also lies in the lack of financial incentives for women. As equal pay for men and women is still not the norm in Germany, even well-educated women are less motivated to choose work over family. Another reason is the education track many women choose. In Germany, female students still prefer communication and liberal arts programs over business, law and engineering, the academic tracks that most corporations draw their leadership from.

Also, Americans seem to be more embracing toward individuals with an unorthodox professional history, those who struggled and fell, pressed on and succeeded, says Roer. This includes people like BB Webb.

Born in Pennsylvania as a daughter to a working-class family, Barbara Banta, which she later changed to BB, studied drama in Maine and Ohio and started her performing career with weekend gigs at the local supermarket, earning ?110 a month. She wrote a one-woman-play called, "Through Ruby's Eyes" and toured the country for several years, performing at high schools, colleges and small theaters. She ended up in Georgia in the early 1990s, burnt out, single and without a clue where to go from there.

For several years, she worked jobs in computer sales and marketing. Then she met her future husband Tom, who had bought the ailing mansion in the tiny township of Carl about 56 kilometers northeast of Atlanta. BB Webb, who has no children but several cats, immediately saw the potential in the house, which originally served as an ornamental plant nursery. "I had this vision of a Southern gathering place," she said.

She had a hard time learning to become a businesswoman, letting go certain day-to-day responsibilities, she said. Her former life as a performer helped her develop creative marketing ideas. "I was used to marketing on a shoe string," she recalled, giggling. Today, BB Webb is an astute businesswoman, and Carl House is more a brand than a facility, supported by BB Webb's local TV and radio shows, which are soon to be aired nationwide.

While Carl House was first known as a location for weddings, BB Webb is now approaching corporate clients, offering facilities for daily workshops, seminars, off-site events and brainstorming retreats. She draws her corporate clients from all over the country and especially from the booming business metropolis of Atlanta with its large international community. Coca-Cola, UPS, Delta Airlines and Home Depot are headquartered here, as are many foreign-owned companies such as Porsche and Siemens. Still, BB Web continues to look for new ideas to reinvent and expand her business. That is because a dream achieved makes room for more.

- Katja Ridderbusch is a business journalist who lives in Atlanta.