How feminist is von der Leyen?

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“#EuropeIsAWoman” — that was the full text of one of the first tweets German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen sent out into the world after being nominated for president of the European Commission. She accompanied it with a picture of the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager smiling and standing beside her. It was a clear signal that one of the most powerful women in Brussels — and a recent aspirant for the presidency — is on board with her candidacy.

Von der Leyen’s nomination marks a first for Europe. If confirmed by the European Parliament next week, she will be the Commission’s first female president.

Faced with opposition over the circumstances of her appointment — she emerged as a compromise candidate at the 11th hour, seemingly out of nowhere — von der Leyen’s supporters have played the feminist card. Putting a woman at the helm of the EU would be a major breakthrough, they argue. Von der Leyen herself alluded to the argument in a tweet Wednesday, writing that “gender equality is a topic close to my heart” and highlighting a pledge to ensure half of the next batch of Commissioners are women.

“#EuropeIsAWoman,” she concluded.

But is gender balance enough of a reason to push von der Leyen through? And beyond her gender, how feminist a choice is she really?

Well, to start with, there’s a lot for a feminist to like in her political career. Well before she become the first woman to lead the defense ministry, she was one of Germany’s most successful politicians. She was even tipped to become Chancellor Angela Merkel’s successor.

As minister for family affairs, von der Leyen managed to push through what many others didn’t even dare talk about in Germany: laws that made clear that raising a child is as much a father’s job as it is a mother’s.

She successfully rebranded “maternity leave” as “parental leave” — no mean feat in a country where for a long time having a family meant the fathers go to work and women do the care-taking.

Even now, 10 years later, fathers are still hesitant about taking more than two months’ leave. But had it not been for von der Leyen, chances are doing even that wouldn’t be an option.

She also fought for better day care for children, so women wouldn’t have to decide between a career and a family. And she insisted gender balance in child raising is not just a women’s issue: “Men want to be accepted as active fathers.” She started to talk about measures that would include men in “care work” and help women better reintegrate into the workforce.

At the time, the changes were seen as a “revolution.” All the more so because von der Leyen pushed them through as a member of the Christian Democrats, back then a highly conservative party. (It still is, in many ways — Merkel only half-heartedly backed away from her opposition to gay marriage in 2017).

Von der Leyen was strong enough politically to weather the storm, partly because she always had Merkel’s support. Germany’s first female chancellor never wanted to be called a feminist, and so left feminism to von der Leyen, who used the spotlight to put forward the controversial concept of the “conservative feminist.”

The emancipation of women, she claimed, had to become a conservative project if the party wanted to stay in touch with the pace of social change and with its voters.

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She led by example, too. As a working mother of seven children she was a repudiation to the prevailing stigma against women who dared to go back to work before their child was three years old. This opened her up to criticism that her brand of feminism was a feminism by and for the privileged. Her detractors liked to point out she that always had a nanny on hand to care for her children.

But there’s no denying that it was von der Leyen — whatever her personal privileges — who delivered breakthrough changes for average middle-class women in Germany. She was also ahead of her time in highlighting that poverty poses a huge problem particularly for women in Germany.

To be sure, von der Leyen has fared less well — and had less occasion to champion feminist causes — in her current position. Her time as defense minister has been at best unremarkable, and includes a burgeoning scandal about the misuse of outside consultants.

But it’s not her tenure at the defense ministry that has sparked resistance to her nomination. The bulk of the criticism stems from the fact that she wasn’t a so-called Spitzenkandidat, one of the politicians selected by their European political parties to serve as a standard bearer during May’s European Parliament election.

Given the flaws in the system, and the fact that only a small percentage of voters knew who the Spitzenkandidaten were, this would be a paltry reason to pass over the chance to elect the first female Commission president.

If would be especially hypocritical for the Greens, a party that has made gender parity central to its identity, to block the politician who has done more than many others in Germany to advance women’s positions, especially one that is fluent in three languages and a committed pro-European and rose to the top of German politics by fighting for gender equality.

If Europe wants to be about “choosing women” and “inspiring girls and women,” as Council President Donald Tusk said, the choice is clear: Stick with von der Leyen for now, and then work on improving the nomination process for the Commission presidency.

And if it’s the Spitzenkandidat process that’s so important, well, there’s always Margrethe Vestager.

Jagoda Marinić is an op-ed columnist for Süddeutsche Zeitung, Taz and Deutsche Welle. She is the author of the German book “Sheroes: Neue Held*innen brauch das Land” (Fischer, 2019) and tweets at @jagodamarinic.