Equal Opportunities Officer of the City of Chemnitz
Equal rights for women and men are enshrined in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 3 paragraph 2 states: "Men and women shall have equal rights. The state shall promote the actual realisation of equal rights for women and men and shall work towards the elimination of existing disadvantages".
Article 8 of the constitution of the Free State of Saxony states: "The promotion of the legal and actual equality of women and men is the responsibility of the state". According to this, municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are obliged to appoint a full-time equal opportunities officer. Their task is to support the implementation of the legal requirements.
The creation of equal opportunities is a cross-sectional task and affects almost all areas of our lives.
The Equal Opportunities Officer of the City of Chemnitz is Ms Pia Hamann. She regularly organises information events, campaigns, seminars, specialist conferences and projects. She also offers personal counselling.
The Equal Opportunities Officer works together with:
- Women's organisations, initiatives and associations
- Independent organisations
- Entrepreneurs and business founders
- Local politicians and local politicians
- Equal opportunities and women's representatives at local, state and federal level
- the EU Coordinator
Topics are:
- Reducing and preventing gender-specific disadvantages
- Combating domestic violence
- Gender-equitable career guidance
- Ensuring equal opportunities for women and men in municipal decisions
- Women in history, culture, business, politics,...
- Women and family
This is implemented by:
- Organisation and coordination of projects, events, seminars, specialist days, campaigns on topics relevant to gender equality policy
- Public relations work
- Advice for organisations, associations and individuals, by telephone or in person
- Participation in committees and advisory boards as well as working groups and networks
Directive on the financial promotion of gender equality
The guideline for the financial promotion of gender equality applies to the granting of subsidies from the budget of the Equal Opportunities Officer for Women and Men, regulates the administrative procedure and makes statements on the eligibility of institutions, projects and measures for funding. The specifics here lie in the actual equality of women and men, which is a mandatory task of the municipality based on Section 2 (1) SächsGemO. The funding and operation of a women's centre in Chemnitz as well as project funding for gender equality is carried out within the framework of this guideline.
Recommendations for gender-equitable language
In 2022, the Equal Opportunities Officer drew up recommendations for gender-equitable language in correspondence, publications and forms at Chemnitz City Council.
Pia Hamann: "... I would like us in the city of Chemnitz to cultivate a language culture that is low in discrimination in order to avoid misunderstandings and not to disparage, hurt or simply forget people. In our thinking, writing and speaking, we should address women and men, people with different gender identities, young and old, people with or without disabilities - in short, all people in all their diversity."
Together against sexism
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Chemnitz Women's Weeks 2024
In 2024, numerous events will also take place in Chemnitz around International Women's Day on 8 March, including at the Lila Villa Women's Centre, Weltecho and the Metropol cinema.
Chemnitz Women's Weeks 2023
Numerous events took place around International Women's Day on 8 March 2023, which the Equal Opportunities Officer organised together with various stakeholders.
These included readings, film screenings, exhibitions and discussion panels.
International Women's Day 2022
Exhibition "Through the eyes of a woman"
To mark International Women's Day, an exhibition was opened on 8 March at the Lila Villa Women's Centre, Kaßbergstraße 22, to mark International Women's Day. The Equal Opportunities Officer of the City of Chemnitz and the Chemnitz Women's Initiatives jointly organised the exhibition.
Twelve women from Chemnitz, the surrounding area and from Chemnitz's twin cities Lodz, Usti nad Labem and Tampere have created the picture exhibition entitled "Through the eyes of women". How do women see the world, why do they choose this or that motif, which techniques do they choose and what motivates them to express themselves artistically in this way? The pictures on display express the diversity of the participating women's views on life and the world.
2019: 100 years of women's suffrage
For one hundred years, women have been allowed to actively participate in the political discourse in Germany - this means being able to influence the shaping of society. A very long and hard struggle was necessary for this, which hardly anyone thinks about today. We have come to take our democratic rights for granted.
Unfortunately, however, equality between women and men has only been realised on paper. In "real" life, there are still many areas in which women are disadvantaged. They are more frequently exposed to domestic violence than men, have lower average pensions and are rarely to be found in very highly paid jobs, such as on the supervisory boards of listed companies. They also still shoulder the greater share of unpaid care work.
They are also underrepresented where laws are passed and relevant decisions are made for the people as a whole: namely in the federal, state and local parliaments. In the current Bundestag, the proportion of women is 36.5%; in Chemnitz city council, it is just 30.4%.
This should and must change. That is why we have launched an appeal aimed at all women, calling on them to take part in the upcoming elections. As women also vote for women more often (source: Rohner/Beerheide in "100 years of women's suffrage - goal achieved! ...and what next?"), gender relations in politics and thus all decisions made in parliaments can be organised more fairly.