In early 2000, the Hans Böckler Foundation launched a new women's forum, the "Equality Group", with the aim of promoting the inclusion of women's interests in Germany's national tripartite "Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness". The background is that the great majority of participants in Alliance meetings are men and that women's interests or gender aspects are seen as having have been ignored in the documents published to date. With more than 200 women working in eight working groups on different topics by December 2000, the Equality Group may be able to raise awareness of women's interests. The question of whether this will influence the policies of the Alliance for Jobs remains open.
Only a fifth of all participants in the forums established by the tripartite national "Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness" (Bündnis für Arbeit, Ausbildung und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit) (DE9812286N) are women. This under-representation of women raises the question of whether women and gender issues in general are sufficiently taken into consideration when policy concepts are discussed in the Alliance's top-level-talks, steering group or various working groups. Therefore, in February 2000, Heide Pfarr, the director of the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (the trade union-linked research foundation), launched a forum which seeks to bring women's interests into the Alliance for Jobs. Ms Pfarr is a member of the "benchmarking" group of four social scientists which accompanies the Alliance for Jobs in order to analyse the German labour market against the background of international experience and to offer ideas for future policies (DE0005261F). The new forum for women's interests is called the "Equality Group (Equality-Gruppe)".
Objectives
The objective of the Equality Group is to examine all topics dealt with by the Alliance for Jobs for the relevance they might have for women. The Equality Group wants to present positive proposals and warn against possible negative effects for women before the Alliance for Jobs deals with a topic, or resolutions are passed. Furthermore, the Equality Group wants to make proposals on how women's employment can be improved, in terms of not only the number of female employees but also their level of qualification. These proposals are to be made to both the national Alliance for Jobs and regional pacts on employment (DE9905107F).
The Equality Group's work is oriented towards targets formulated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on gender issues within social dialogue. These involve:
- placing gender on the agenda;
- achieving gender balance in the social dialogue;
- enhancing tripartite dialogue though such means as gender advisory councils; and
- using social dialogue used as a method to present gender issues.
The Equality Group wants to raise awareness that:
- women might be affected negatively by the proposals discussed in the Alliance for Jobs;
- some subjects are excluded from the agenda although they are of great importance for women and their situation; and
- changes are necessary to improve the situation of women and to achieve gender equality.
Therefore, the Group believes that it is important that not only the participants within the Alliance for Jobs, but also the wider public, become aware of the importance of gender issues. Consequently, it seeks to involve more women in the national Alliance for Jobs, to maintain constant awareness of the gender perspective and to ensure that new subjects with a high relevance for women are placed on the agenda.
Participants and structure
The initiative was launched in February 2000 when the Hans Böckler Foundation invited women working in trade unions, politics, universities, churches and other fields to participate in the Equality Group, which is subdivided into eight working groups on the following topics:
- the future of work;
- the reconciliation of work and family life;
- qualifications and vocational and further training;
- new technologies;
- fiscal, financial and economic policy;
- social security and pensions reform;
- working time; and
- active labour market policy
More than 200 women have since shown an interest in taking part in at least one of the working groups. The idea is that the individual working groups work autonomously, with at least one person in each group moderating the process. The subjects each working group deals with are chosen on the basis of whether or not they are being discussed within the Alliance for Jobs. The participants in the Equality Group have agreed on a framework for their work aimed at an effective application of the gender perspective. This framework stipulates that any suggestions which are made should be practicable and set concrete targets. In addition, the groups should concentrate on a small number of subjects. As many of the women concerned are involved in other research or in politics, the groups should make use of "synergy effects". Working papers, press releases and other public statements are coordinated by the Hans Böckler Foundation, which also uses its infrastructure to pass on relevant information on to each group.
First public statement
On 25 October 2000, the Equality Group made its first public statement, dealing with the pensions reform plans proposed by the Federal Ministry of Labour (DE0008276F). This statement was drawn up by Judith Kerschbaumer and Mechthild Veil, two members of the working group on social security and pensions reform. In this statement, the authors criticise the current plan for pensions reform because it does not make provisions for an individual old-age pension scheme for women, and claim that it is not oriented to the living conditions of working women with children. The reform would, therefore, reduce the pensions of this group.
Commentary
On 30 November and 1 December 2000, a conference on "Alliance for (Women's) Jobs -status quo and new concepts" was held by the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI). At this conference, women participating in the Equality Group had the opportunity to discuss their work. The fact that so many women are already participating in the working groups was seen as a success for the Equality Group, because it proves that women are aware of the fact that their interests are not part of the tripartite discussions on employment at this level, and that they are interested in intervening in this process. At this point, the discussions show that there are many women who are sceptical, not only as to whether the national Alliance for Jobs can be affected by the Equality Group, but also as to whether the Alliance is the appropriate political arena to deal with women's interests. The latter scepticism results from a general criticism of the Alliance and its outcomes so far which has recently been expressed by some trade unions (DE0012296N and DE0010285N). (Alexandra Scheele, Institute for Economic and Social Research, WSI)