Women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main

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Entrance to the office of the women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main

The women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main, as a specialist office , advises the municipal political bodies and the administration of the city of Frankfurt am Main on all relevant women's political issues and prepares the decisions of the municipal authorities. The women's department was politically enforced by actors of the new women's movement and has existed since 1989 .

history

Political groups and organizations emerged from the women's political activities and discussions within the student movement after 1968, primarily in the academic environment, such as the Frankfurt Women's Council and autonomous women's departments in the student representatives of German universities. In the expanding new women's movement, initially informal, later formal networks and institutions developed in many areas of society. As a result of the broad protest movement against the abortion paragraph 218 , women's centers close to the city center with a focus on areas specific to women such as health, the body, self-determined sexuality and violence against women emerged in the 1970s . Other feminist projects, for example for single parents and unemployed women, and women's education projects were set up in many places in Germany.

In this second phase of the women's movement, the focus of feminist politics was largely on autonomy; women wanted to act according to their own interests independently of state influence and to redesign their life contexts. In Frankfurt am Main, around 30 autonomous projects, institutions and women's networks developed from the mid-1970s, some of which have continued to the present (as of 2020).

Since the mid-1980s, actors in the new women's movement , not only in Frankfurt am Main, have been making specific demands on municipalities and parties to anchor the concerns of women in local politics and public budgets: for example, by setting up women's political programs and increasing the proportion of Women in political office. The foundation of the women's department of the city of Frankfurt in 1989 was a result of these demands.

History of the founding of the Frankfurt women's department

Walter-Kolb-Strasse 9–11 in Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt am Main, Hasengasse 4, office of the city's women's department on the 3rd floor above the city library

Margarethe Nimsch was elected as the first head of the department for women and health in June 1989. She was already since 1985, representing the autonomous women's movement in the local elections in Hesse on the list of Greens elected as city councilor in Frankfurt and as such in the election in 1989 in the first red-green coalition in the Frankfurt magistrate confirmed.

After taking office, the head of the department for women and health, together with her then office manager Dörthe Jung , designed a department for women's policy within the city of Frankfurt for the first time. The women's department, set up as a cross-sectional office in the municipal administration, was opened on September 1, 1989. The tasks of the previously existing equal opportunities office of the city administration were taken over by the women's department.

The women's department should begin work with a total of 17 posts for an office manager, eight specialist officers for municipal policy areas and nine clerks. Until 1991, only 11 positions could be filled due to an occupation ban by the city of Frankfurt am Main.

The annual budget of the women's department in 1989 was around DM 4.5 million. In the first few years after its establishment, the existence of the office was repeatedly questioned in public and parliamentary terms. Despite these doubts, the women's department and department increased their annual budget to DM 5 million in 1991.

The women's department was initially located at Walter-Kolb-Straße 9-11, and in 2007 it moved to Hasengasse 4, the building of the Frankfurt am Main city library .

tasks

Institutional women's policy: development and fields of work

The tasks and areas of influence of the women's department extended beyond gender equality policy into all eight municipal policy areas (urban planning, culture and education, social affairs, girls policy, health policy, advancement of women in administration, economic and labor market policy); the specialist officer positions corresponded to these departments.

The aim of the women's department was (and is) to examine measures and decisions in all departments and to provide impetus to "improve the living and working conditions of the citizens of this city and to eliminate the discrimination against women's interests in local politics."

Campaigns, cooperation projects and institutional initiatives of the women's department (selection)

From 1989 to 1994 the women's department conducted several women's district discussions on various aspects of women's life in the city. The publication Women take the city document the results of these rounds of talks on the security and freedom of movement of women in public urban space. In 1996 the guidelines for women-friendly urban development planning followed , which received national and international attention.

From 1990 onwards, around 20 projects with services offered by the new women's movement received municipal funding, including the women's health center (FFGZ), the autonomous women's shelter (women help women), the women's emergency call center , the German-Iranian advice center e. V., the women's software house , the women's culture house , the women's businesses e. V. (today jumpp. Your springboard to self-employment ) and the FEM - Feministische Mädchenarbeit e. V .

In 1991 the women’s advancement plan for the city administration of Frankfurt was adopted with regulations, among other things, to increase the proportion of women in vacancies and the appointment of women’s representatives in all municipal offices. In 1994, when the Hessian Equal Rights Act (HGlG) came into force, the Frankfurt Women's Promotion Plan was implemented, within the framework of which the city administration introduced an organizational unit with two general women's representatives.

Since 1992, the city of Frankfurt has awarded the Tony Sender Prize, named after the union and journalist Tony Sender (1888–1964), every two years . The prize, endowed with 10,000 euros, will be presented by the respective female head of department. With the award, the city honors individual women or projects, institutions and associations in Frankfurt am Main who have particularly campaigned for equality between women and men and against disadvantage and discrimination.

1993 Study and documentation of the investigations into the working conditions of women workers in public lavatories in the city of Frankfurt am Main .

On the initiative of the women's department and the Frankfurt employment office, the non-profit Frankfurt Women's Employment Society (GFFB) was founded in 1994 for the qualification and placement of around 100 long-term unemployed women.

In 1995 the Frankfurt city council passed the guidelines for the promotion of work with girls in local youth welfare .

In 1996 the information exchange for female founders was created on the initiative of Frauenbetriebe e. V., the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) and the women's department, in 1998 the network comes under the same leadership . Rhein-Main-Verbund for female entrepreneurs .

In 1998/99 the women's department organized a series of events on local cultural and women's politics. The results were published in the documentation die weiberwirtschaft: Women in the Frankfurt art and culture industry .

The public event series Forum Zukunft Frankfurt , carried out by the women's department in 1998/1999 , was aimed at Frankfurt citizens in order to discuss municipal design options from the perspectives of all genders.

In 2002, around 60 women's projects were presented in the Frankfurt Römer as part of the 30th anniversary of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main.

Since 2007, the women's department has been supporting the Frankfurter Kranz platform for women who work in culture to promote networking and interdisciplinary cooperation with professionalization and training opportunities.

According to its own information, the women's department today (as of 2020) is primarily a service partner in all gender issues. It cooperates with the offices and departments and supports the implementation of gender mainstreaming in administration and politics. The women's department examines all urban projects with a view to women and men, girls and boys as well as people with and without a migration background. It advocates equal opportunities, equal pay and all forms of violence and discrimination. It supports and advises various Frankfurt women's institutions and promotes innovative projects, is a cooperation and network partner for Frankfurt women, for offices, organizations, institutions and projects, regionally, nationally and internationally.

In the past few years, the women's department has carried out its own campaigns on the topics “Poverty is a woman”, sexism, and “women-power-politics”. In 2020, the women's department started the cliché-free zone campaign to break down gender stereotypes as part of the EU project Gendered Landscapes.

Department heads

Heads of Department

Margarethe Nimsch (1989–1995), Sylvia Schenk (1995–2001), Jutta Ebeling (2001–2012), Sarah Sorge (2012–2016), Rosemarie Heilig (2016–)

Heads of Office

The first head of the women's department was Renate Krauß-Pötz (1989–2000), the specialist departments were initially occupied by Sibylla Flügge (health), Gisela Kraut (culture), Christa Hecht (future of the public service), Beate Weißmann (girl policy and communal social policy for women), Gabriele Wibelitz (public relations), Monika Selke-Krüger (office), Barbara Broser (library) and Ingrid Sanyal, Ulrike Jakob and Martina Mai (administration).

Gabriele Wenner has been Head of Office since 2002 .

Award

In 2018, the city of Frankfurt am Main, together with the Hanover region and the city of Düsseldorf, received the Gender Award - Commune with a Future from the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) . The reason was: "The city of Frankfurt am Main implements its own campaigns against poverty and sexism in women and has provided extensive capacities for the municipality's equal opportunities work with internal equality offices and an external women's department." The prize was awarded to the city of Frankfurt am Main's head of women's affairs, Rosemarie Heilig, the deputy head of the women's department Beate Herzog and the head of the equality office Ulrike Jakob.

Publications of the women's department (selection)

  • Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main: Prostitution as a service industry and economic factor in Frankfurt. Public hearing , September 27, 1990.
  • City of Frankfurt am Main, Department Women and Health, Women's Department (Ed.): Feminization of the public service - bureaucratization of women. Documentation of the symposium "The future of public service" . Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  • Office for Multicultural Affairs, Department Women and Health, Women's Department (Ed.): Frankfurt hearing on the situation of migrant women . Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  • City of Frankfurt am Main, Department Women and Health, Women's Department and Department Social Affairs, Youth, Personnel and Organization, Youth Welfare Office (ed.): Frankfurt guidelines for promoting work with girls in child and youth welfare. Frankfurt am Main 1995.
  • City of Frankfurt am Main, Department Women and Health, Women's Department (Ed.): Women's issues in binding urban land-use planning. Principles in considering the concerns of women. Practical Guide . Frankfurt am Main 1996.
  • Women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Die weiberwirtschaft. Documentation of the round tables on the advancement of women in culture 1998/1999. Frankfurt am Main 1999.
  • Women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Wirsindso * free. 3 decades of new women's movement in Frankfurt . Frankfurt am Main 2002.
  • Frauen-Guide Frankfurt , editions updated at irregular intervals since 2006
  • Birgit Kasper, Steffi Schubert: Named after women. 127 streets in Frankfurt am Main . Published by the City of Frankfurt am Main, women's lecture. Nizza Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-940599-06-3 .
  • Women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): My NO means NO . Frankfurt am Main 2017.
  • Gabriele Wenner, Linda Kagerbauer, Dorothee Linnemann, Jenny Jung, Katja Koblitz (Red.): 100 years of women's suffrage. Catalog of the 49 women portrayed in the Imperial Hall of the Frankfurt Römers . Published by the women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main and the Frankfurt Historical Museum. March 2018
  • This is what a feminist looks like - Frankfurt portraits in collaboration with the photographer Katharina Dubno 2020.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulla Wischermann: From women's council to women's professorship. The new women's movement and the 1968 departure . In: Goethe University (ed.): The 68er. Research Frankfurt. The science magazine of the Goethe University . No. 1 . Frankfurt am Main 2018, p. 62 ff . ( uni-frankfurt.de [PDF]).
  2. ↑ Action 2018. In: Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv. ida-Dachverband - Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv, accessed on June 24, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Sabine Hamm: The women's health movement. An example of networking . With the participation of Stephanie Junk. Ed .: Clusters of Excellence at the University of Trier and Mainz: “Social dependencies and social networks”. University of Trier, Trier July 2010, p. 7-8 ( yumpu.com ).
  4. ↑ Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Wirsindso * free. 3 decades of new women's movement in Frankfurt. 58 Frankfurt women’s projects connect yesterday - today - tomorrow. Milestones from the law and history of the Frankfurt women's movement . Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 49 ( frankfurt.de ).
  5. ↑ Ulla Wischermann: From women's council to women's professorship. The new women's movement and the 1968 departure . In: Goethe University (ed.): Die 68er: Research Frankfurt. The science magazine of the Goethe University . No. 1 . Frankfurt am Main 2018, p. 66 ( uni-frankfurt.de [PDF]).
  6. ↑ Ilse Lenz (Ed.): The new women's movement in Germany. Farewell to the small difference. A collection of sources . 2nd updated edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17436-5 , p. 355 ff .
  7. ↑ Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project. A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (eds.): An exchange about women's history (s) in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, ISBN 3-931559-95-5 , p. 147 .
  8. ↑ Dörthe Jung: How the women's movement moved Frankfurt. New beginnings and rebellion: The new women's movement in Frankfurt1968–1990. Lecture at the German Architecture Museum Frankfurt am Main. October 4, 2017, p. 9 ff , accessed on June 24, 2020 .
  9. ↑ a b Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Wirsindso * free. 3 decades of new women's movement in Frankfurt. 58 Frankfurt women’s projects connect yesterday - today - tomorrow. Milestones from the law and history of the Frankfurt women's movement. Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 58 ( frankfurt.de ).
  10. ↑ a b Mechthild Harting: The wind blows women in the sails. In: faz.net. November 28, 2014, accessed July 1, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Dörthe Jung: How the women's movement moved Frankfurt. New beginnings and rebellion: The new women's movement in Frankfurt 1968–1990. Lecture at the German Architecture Museum Frankfurt am Main. Pp. 16-17 , accessed June 24, 2020 .
  12. ^ Stadtchronik 1989 - 11 September 1989. In: Institute for City History Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved June 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Three years of municipal women's policy in Frankfurt . Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  14. ↑ a b c Agnes Bucaille, Beate Menger: A day in the women's department . In: Frankfurter Frauenblatt . No. 4 , 1991, pp. 12-17 .
  15. ↑ No majority in favor of dissolving the women's department . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . 7 July 1993, p. 32 .
  16. ^ Source unless otherwise stated: Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main (Ed.): Wirsindso * free. 3 decades of new women's movement in Frankfurt. 58 Frankfurt women’s projects connect yesterday - today - tomorrow. Milestones from the law and history of the Frankfurt women's movement. Frankfurt am Main 2002.
  17. ↑ "It is also noticeable that seven of the ten largest cities in Germany have produced catalogs of criteria (...): Berlin, Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt a. M., Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart. This confirms the general urban sociological knowledge that large cities are an essential prerequisite for emancipation and innovation. The decline in women-specific activities since the end of the 1990s coincides with the introduction of gender mainstreaming in the EU and its member states. ”From: Barbara Zibell, Anke Schröder: Women mix: Quality criteria for urban and urban development planning. Contributions to the sociology of planning and architecture, Volume 5 Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-56741-8 , p. 207.
  18. ↑ "Security is considered to be a quality feature of urban planning in the 21st century, although it was vehemently demanded by the women of the women's movement as early as the late 1970s and was part of every catalog of criteria for women-specific issues in urban planning." Note 2: e.g. criteria catalog of the City of Frankfurt am Main, women's department) From: Erich Marks, Wiebke Steffen (Ed.): Living safely in town and country: Selected contributions from the 17th German Prevention Day 2012 in Munich , Forum Verlag Godesberg , Mönchengladbach 2013, ISBN 978-3-942865-15-9 , p. 347.
  19. ↑ Tony Sender Prize. In: City of Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved June 24, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Bundesanzeiger (ed.): Commercial register announcements of August 27, 1994 .
  21. ↑ Karola Gramann (Red.): The women's economy. women in art and culture. Documentation of the hearing on May 17, 1999 and the round tables from November 1998 to March 1999 . Ed .: Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 1999.
  22. ↑ Stadtchronik 1999 - April 20, 1999. In: Institute for City History Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved June 24, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main: We about us. In: frankfurt.de. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main: Chronicle of the women's department. In: frankfurt.de. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Women's department of the city of Frankfurt am Main: cliché-free zone Frankfurt. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Ilse Romahn: 30 years of urban women's department and not a bit quiet. In: Frankfurt Live. November 14, 2019, accessed June 25, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Gender Award recognizes municipalities with exemplary gender equality work. Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women, Children and Youth, June 11, 2018, accessed on June 25, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Frankfurt empowers women in an award-winning way . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse . June 13, 2018, p. 10 .
  29. ↑ Women's Guide. In: frankfurt.de. City of Frankfurt am Main, women's department, accessed on June 25, 2020 .
  30. ↑ women. Power. Politics. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  31. ↑ This is what a feminist looks like - in Frankfurt. In: women. Power. Politics. Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main, accessed on June 25, 2020 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 47.5 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 3.6 ″  E