Bascha Mika

Bascha Mika, who until the summer of 2009 was editor-in-chief at the taz in Berlin, is a publicist and feminist who wields language powerfully. She has just published a book that starts much less ambitiously. Not in the boardrooms, not with quotas for women in top jobs, but with topics like starting your first job and making life plans - the very ordinary life of very ordinary women. While her theory in itself is not new, she sheds new light on the debate. (…) Women, complains Bascha Mika, too often choose a comfortable life. They do not look for jobs according to whether they will bring in money that can buy independence. They too often see their work as a hobby. They have children as a way of escaping from gruelling work schedules. They think it is normal for the man to be the main breadwinner. They exaggerate their role as mother in order to have an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for themselves. They give up their career and say: “It just happened that way,” instead of admitting that their will to live a different life was not strong enough. Mika’s text is what the literature business calls a “debate book”. (…) The idea is to find something to get worked up about.

Cathrin Kahlweit: „Er zahlt bar, sie zahlt mit Lebenszeit“
© Süddeutsche Zeitung, 9 February 2011