Women - men - gender. - Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

20 IN CONVERSATION WITH DR. CHRISTINE BERGMANN
“Changing a mind-set always takes a long time”
In Conversation with Dr. Christine Bergmann
She was a Senator in Berlin, and in
1998, she was the fi rst Minister for
Women and Family Affairs in the
Coalition Government of SPD and
the Green Party of Germany. She is
a member of the Executive Board of
the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, and is
a passionate champion of a modern
women’s policy. She believes gender
mainstreaming is a necessary complement
for such but not a substitute.
“Equal pay for equal work”.
For decades, this has been the
demand of women workers and
trade unionists, yet women continue
to earn one-fi fth less than men.
Why are women not protesting
more vehemently?
It’s scandalous that women continue to earn less than men, and, on
this issue, Germany is particularly badly placed in international
comparison. The difference in salaries between men and women is
substantively higher in the old Bundesländer (federal states) than in
the new ones, although even there, there is no parity of pay. What is
the reason for this, and what must women do to ensure gender
equitable payment? There are several answers to these questions:
1. Traditional women’s professions are traditionally poorly paid. I’m
thinking here, for example, of the service rendered by women to
other people, such as, nursing, child care etc. Protest, in this case,
means that women must become members of the trade union collective
agreement committee. Women must also realize that they
have to take the lead in ensuring that subsistence level legal minimum
wages are fi xed.
2. Taking a break from work, particularly a long one, and part-time
work are hindrances to career advancement and do not lead to
well-paid positions. This brings us to, one, the problem of equitable
distribution of familial and professional work between men and
women. One has to think differently even with regard to the workplace.
Many executive positions can be held, even with shorter
working hours. Yes, we can!
3. Even if the fi rst two causes were no longer to apply, differences
would still persist, as has been proven by the German Institute of
Economic Research (DIW). Real discrimination still exists. In gene-