AWhen the woman on the cargo bike comes to a stop in front of me, I have to stop too. At the beginning of January, a bike path on a busy main street in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg: A driver pushed the nose of his car across our lane, the woman simply couldn’t get past with her wide vehicle. Just a few inches backwards and the cargo bike would steer around the hood. Instead, the driver accelerates, cuts off the woman’s path and dashes away. We look at each other, I have to laugh. “Typically male way of solving a problem,” I say. The woman smiles back and says, “Nice scarf.”
In a good mood, I continue cycling and think about when all the compliments from women actually started – regardless of whether they were friends, colleagues or strangers. Recently, during a video conference with a large group, a colleague wrote to me in the chat, my red sweater with the yellow scarf, that was pretty. When I try out my new super powder before a party, my sister-in-law says I hardly need any make-up anyway.