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

36
POLITICS AND TRADE UNIONS
The reconciliation of family and job
is central to achieving gender
equality. What is the experience of
men with regard to paternity leave?
Is the German Trade Union
Federation, DGB, going to support
them on this issue?
What has been the experience
of the DGB with gender mainstreaming?
Is this instrument
being applied?
The questions were posed
by Anne Seyfferth (left) and Nora
Langenbacher both FES
The DGB has just commissioned an Institute to inquire into the experience
of these “new fathers” with their employers and colleagues.
We suspect that there is still very little understanding of this phenomenon
– perhaps their superiors might support them, but there is
often a lack of acceptance among their colleagues. Very little can be
done in terms of law on this issue. It is necessary to sensitise and generate
awareness on this issue at the work-place. We are doing this, for
example, through our educational work. The theme of “The Reconciliation
of Family and Job” must be more intensely integrated into the
work of the Works Council. Our experience has been that the management
of small and medium-sized enterprises on their own make overtures
to the Works Council. In order to keep their employees they
want to offer them an incentive for the family phase. This perspective
is currently totally lacking in the case of big companies. For trade
unions, it is very rewarding to generate awareness on this issue.
We have not succeeded in applying it uniformly. The understanding of
gender mainstreaming is the greatest at the administrative level of the
national executive board. Here, there is good cooperation between the
various departments. However, if one goes to the provinces and the
regions, the picture is somewhat different. We want to evaluate the
experience critically and establish what we have actually achieved in
our own organization after ten years. The positive point to be made is
that even in a male dominated trade union such as IG Metall awareness
has been generated that greater consideration must be given to
gender, that is men and women, with regard to forms of address, to
planning or to advertisements. So there is some change, but everything
takes an incredibly long time.
FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG