Andreas Wilderer had always believed in equality. He knew not to just blindly comply with social norms and realized that supporting his wife, Mirka, would produce the best outcomes for their family. He began to have these thoughts in earnest when he and Mirka were expecting their first child. Mirka had already started a successful career at Siemens while also writing her doctoral thesis. Andreas, on the other hand, was in the middle of his civil engineering studies. Together, they decided that Andreas was to be a stay-at-home dad.
However, they were not expecting the intense backlash that they would receive from family and friends. They both faced accusations; Andreas due to the belief that a man could not be trusted to take good care of children, and Mirka due to the assumption that she was being a bad mother. Despite all the hardships this brought, it did not stop them from supporting each other.
Today, Mirka is CEO of the global water technology company, De Nora Water Technologies, and Andreas has become a successful keynote speaker, author, and coach who helps couples overcome traditional role models so that men can ideally support successful women. He is now a recognized advocate and role model for non-traditional family models, empowerment of women, and for women in leadership and their partners. His work has been published in both the national and international press.
The Equal Voice magazine, an initiative by the Ringier Group from Switzerland that was launched in 2019 by the group’s CFO Dr. Annabella Bassler, is designed to increase women’s visibility in media and advocate for gender equality. When they found out about the powerful story of the Wilderer’s, they could not miss the opportunity to feature them in their magazine. To read the article titled “Dad has everything under control” (or “Papa hat alles im Griff” in German, which is also the language of the article), click here (page 70-71).
