hamburg - city of successful women
(24 october 1999, welt am sonntag)

‘the spouse of the woman is the man, the spouse of the man is his job’, the indien say. women from hamburg say something else: in the hanseatic city the part of the working women has continously risen during the last 20 years. and many of them are extremly successful.

in high ranking positions at the offices or in the hip lofts on the harbour, where advertising agencies and film producers are situated – everywhere one meets young attractive women in leading positions.

a study of the kölner institute der deutschen wirtschaft (cologne institute of german economy) found out that the change from the industrial to the service and information society and with this the demand of economy for more qualified labour is in favour for women.

a trend that extremly affects hamburg. because here the branches that ask for women in leading positions are concentrated: advertising and marketing, media and fashion.

the fact that hamburg becomes more and more a dorado for successful women is also shown in the number of selfemployed: while nationally only 6.3 percent of the women are selfemployed they make out 7.7 percent in hamburg which is about 1.5 percent more. according to the department for equality more than 42 000 of the approximately 150 000 hamburg companies are run by women.

do women lead different from men? better? more efficient? more successful? ‘women tackle the problems more intuitively’, the hamburg management consultant ulrich altenhofer found out. ‘ when it comes to the facts they decide while men do prefere to ask for another report.’ strength of the women is also ‘that they can charmingly admit that they have no clue’ says altenhofer. and the general manager of the chamber of commerce, hans-jörg schmidt-trenz says, that women in leading positions are helped by a special quality: ‘their emotional intelligence’.

according to the institut der deutschen wirtschaft (institute of german economy) the part of women in leading positions will rise further in the next few decades. especially the service sector asks for more qualities that are counted rather as feminin, like communication, team orientation, flexibility or comprehensive thinking.

christine zu salm, 33, general manager of the music station mtv, is one of the successful women of hamburg. with her team she raised the success of the station by 34 percent. the beautiful aristocratic about the secret of successful women:’if i do not unterstand something i consult somebody about it, preferably older and more experienced people. i do have a feeling for things that are proposed to me.’ emotional intelligenz....

the interior architect’it is not about copying things’; says yasmine mahmoudieh, 38. ‘they have to be improved’ the ideas of the designer with diploma (she studied in geneva and los angeles) seem never to cease. she designs usage concepts for shopping centres, hotels or exhibitions. companies: berlin, barcelona, london. father: iranien, mother: hamburg – since 13 years she has been living at the river elbe. when she founded ‘mahmoudieh design’ in 1986 she had two employees. today she has 17.