Equal opportunities and equality for women

• List of municipal equal opportunities officers (002).pdf

International Women's Day

International Women's Day looks back on a long tradition. It originated in the fight for equal rights and the right to vote for women. Initiated by Clara Zetkin (1857-1933), the first International Women's Day took place on March 19, 1911. Millions of women in Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA took part. The choice of this date was intended to emphasize the revolutionary character of Women's Day. March 18 was the day of remembrance for those who died in Berlin during the 1848 revolution.

The central demands were

• Fight against the imperialist war
• Voting rights for women
• labor protection laws
• adequate protection for mothers and children
• the eight-hour working day
• equal pay for equal work
• the setting of minimum wages

In the following years, International Women's Day was celebrated annually between February and April. International Women's Day was set for March 8 in 1921 by resolution of the 2nd Communist Women's Conference. This was to commemorate the textile workers' strike in St. Petersburg, which spread to other sectors and triggered a large demonstration of women workers. These struggles took place on the occasion of Women's Day on March 8, 1917 - February 23 according to the old Russian calendar - and triggered the beginning of the "February Revolution".
In Germany, the Nazi ideology of the role of women as wives and mothers led to a major step backwards. In 1932, Women's Day was banned by the National Socialists and replaced by Mother's Day.

After the Second World War, Women's Day celebrations were held again in the Soviet occupation zone as early as 1946. In the socialist countries, the social liberation of women was celebrated and the day was organized with official celebrations for women. In West Germany, Women's Day was only revived in the late 1960s by the new, autonomous women's movement. March 8 became an important platform for the women's movement. Issues such as the rights of foreign women, discrimination against non-heterosexual lifestyles and the better safeguarding of women's rights in the context of European rapprochement were taken up.

And where does the custom of giving women a red rose on March 8 to mark Women's Day come from?

In 1986, Women's Day celebrated its 75th birthday. The motto of this Women's Day was: We want bread and roses!

Bread stands for:

• Right to work
• Fair pay
• Equal education and training opportunities
• Humane working conditions
• Professional development and advancement
• Independent social security for women

Roses stand for:

• The opportunity to live and work with children
• Family-friendly working hours
• The satisfaction of cultural needs
• A decent housing and living environment
• The equal participation of men in housework and child rearing
• Humane forms of politics
• tolerance
• peace

These demands have not lost their relevance to this day.

Imagine it's an election and no one is going!

Equal opportunities officers send out video messages for the 2021 election year

This year, people in Rhineland-Palatinate can go to the polls twice. The new state parliament will be elected on March 14, the new Bundestag on September 26 and the district council election in the Trier-Saarburg district will take place on the same day.

Women's suffrage was introduced in Germany more than 100 years ago and women have gradually fought for their place in politics. And yet the proportion of women in the German Bundestag is currently only 30.9%. And events in the USA have shown us just how quickly a democracy can come under threat.

The equal opportunities officers in the Trier region would have liked to discuss democracy, more co-determination for women, sustainable coexistence between women and men and more diversity with you this year.

Unfortunately, the current situation does not allow for face-to-face events. We have therefore chosen a new way to draw attention to our concerns and appointed an ambassador. Her name is Marlies Blume and she has produced six short videos under the motto: "Imagine it's an election and no one is going" with the messages "Yes, I do!", "It's all about the sausage", "System relevance on two legs", "Getting involved instead of dusting off", "Top dog bickering and catfighting " and " Women and men must fertilize each other ".

See for yourself here

Please support our cause and share this link!

The project is a cooperation between the working group of municipal equal opportunities officers in the district of Trier-Saarburg, the equal opportunities officers of the districts of Bernkastel-Wittlich and Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm and the cabaret artist Heike Sauer.

We all have the choice, in March and September 2021! Let's go there!

For more information, please contact your Equal Opportunities Officer for the Eifel district

Marita Singh 06561/153100

Singh.marita@bitburg-pruem.de

100 great Rhineland-Palatinate women

What do Joy Fleming, Hildegard von Bingen, Erika Köth, Sophie von La Roche, Elisabeth Langgässer, Loreley, Ingrid Mickler-Becker, Mary Roos, Gabriela zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, Anna Seghers, Margit Sponheimer and Clara Viebig have in common?

These twelve women's names represented the Rhineland-Palatinate women in the campaign "The 100 Greatest Rhineland-Palatinate Women" by SWR, the Rhein-Zeitung and the Rheinpfalz in 2007. 87 men and only twelve women stood for the election of the greatest in the state - truly a disproportion! The state working group (LAG) of the municipal women's and equal opportunities representatives in Rhineland-Palatinate protested at an early stage, but without success.

Therefore, the LAG would like to show in a different way that there were and are more than twelve important Rhineland-Palatinate women and has compiled its own list of 100 women from the past and present of the state.

• 100_large_women_from_the_Rhineland_Pfalz.pdf