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

28
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
“No pain, no gain!”
Hans-Jochen Vogel on the Resolution to introduce Quotas
Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel was the
Chairperson of the SPD from 1987 to
1991. He vehemently supported the
greater participation of women in
political offi ces and seats. He did not
view this as political astuteness, but
simply as a matter of gender equality.
Had it not been for his tenacity in
convincing others, there would have
been no resolution to introduce quotas
by the SPD, twenty years ago, at
the Münster party congress.
Why did you work so intensely
for the larger political participation
of women, which according to you,
at that time, would seemingly not
have been possible without a clear
cut decision in favor of quotas?
Well, many women were also
skeptical about quotas. They feared
the stigma of “token-women”
would attach to them and they
wanted to achieve these milestones
through their own efforts.
Have the men come to terms
with the decision in favor of
quotas? To begin with, they were
not particularly taken up by it?
As the Chairperson of the Party, at the Münster Party Congress, in
1988, I strongly advocated quotas, but even before that, I always supported
the idea of quotas for women, because equality of men and
women has been a fundamental tenet of social democracy since the
time of August Bebel, and, it was increasingly becoming clear that appeals
and exhortations alone would not result in an increase in the
share of women in political positions. Thus, for example, the proportion
of women in the SPD parliamentary party faction remained clearly
below 20 per cent till the end of the 1980s.
From a subjective perspective, I could well understand these anxieties.
But anyone wanting to improve the situation could not remain passive
in the long-term because of such fears and anxieties. The Working
Group on Social Democratic Women also then changed its position in
1985 and spoke out in favor of the quota.
Yes, they have. There have been instances, where men have cited the
resolution on quotas. Strictly speaking, it is really a gender quota.