Gender democracy

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World Pride, London 2012

Gender democracy is a strategic approach to gender politics . He insists that not only women , but also men and non-binary genders participate in the explicit gender-political design of a society , organization or company . It describes the intention to establish democratic relationships between the sexes. To achieve this, u. a. Gender training courses are held to develop and sharpen awareness of inequalities and to show ways to democratize gender relations . The term gender democracy was developed and coined by the Berlin sociologist Halina Bendkowski .

The gender democracy approach emerged in the 1990s along with the gender mainstreaming approach .

History of the term

Johanna-Dohnal-Platz in Vienna. In a publication edited by Johanna Dohnal, the term “gender democracy” first appeared on a book title in 1993.

According to Halina Bendkowski, she developed the term in the early 1990s when she was “ researching innovative projects against domestic violence in the USA on behalf of the Austrian Minister for Women, Johanna Dohnal ”. The term first appeared as a title in 1993 in a publication by the Austrian Federal Minister for Women's Affairs : "Test the West: Gender Democracy and Violence".

The pioneers of the gender democratic approach rejected a fixed definition of the term. Bendkowski wrote: “As soon as terms are lexically recorded and theory recycled, they have mostly already had their vital lives behind them. Yes, terms are also alive, especially those that have been won for and in real political disputes. ” Gunda Werner , who outlined the principles for gender democracy in the Heinrich Böll Foundation in 1999 , explained:“ Gender democracy has neither practical nor theoretical concepts. It is a search movement for new orientations and models. ”Nevertheless, the cornerstones of these early approaches to gender democracy can be named:

  • Gender democracy is a normative concept , that is, an absolute moral and ethical requirement.
  • Democratic principles should apply not only to politics, but also to the world of work and private life.

Elsewhere, reference is made to the complexity of the principle, which is not without contradictions:

“Originating in the anti-violence debate [the term gender democracy] aims at a change of perspective with the aim of making men more accountable in their various positions (...). In the institutional and organizational debate, gender democracy was primarily discussed as an alternative to conventional women's and gender equality politics. As a feminist utopia, the term primarily has a placeholder function for a multitude of feminist visions. "

Goals and Approaches

The aim of the gender- political approach of gender democracy is to allow women and men to participate equally in politics, business and society. To this end, undemocratic structures should be changed and violent rule dismantled. “Democracy” has a broader meaning here: equal rights and opportunities for different types of people are recognized. Since there is a multitude of gender identities, the man / woman dichotomy is also rejected, since every person, regardless of gender, must have the opportunity to determine their own life and relationships and go beyond stereotypical ideas about “the” men or “the” women to design.

In gender-democratic practice, structures and content of constitutional democracy developed by men are examined and converted into gender-equitable systems and forms of expression. A source says, the democratic principle of representation and the state are (as amended by due to the separation in a public sphere discourses of power and domination enforced, but also criticized), and into a private sphere ( household chores ) guarantee for lasting sex separation . This has to be overcome by developing gender-equitable participation, articulation and presentation. In contrast to the practice of gender mainstreaming , access to adequate resources is also taken into account and the structure of the state itself is questioned.

An essential means of implementing gender democracy are so-called gender training courses. a. Role ideas are questioned, the social framework is analyzed and approaches are to be developed for how greater gender equality can be achieved in organizations.

Gender Democracy in Organizations

Some examples of organizations in which gender democracy is institutionally anchored:

  • In the statutes of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, gender democracy is defined as a joint task.
  • In the statutes of the trade union ver.di , the "realization of gender democracy" is set as a goal.
  • In the statutes of the Education and Science Union (GEW), the "expansion of gender democracy" is defined as one of the purposes and tasks of the organization.
  • In the federal statutes of the party Die Linke , § 10 bears the title "Gender Democracy".

literature

  • Johanna Dohnal (Ed.): Test the West: Gender Democracy and Violence. Vol. 1 of violence against women, women against violence. Federal Minister for Women's Affairs, Vienna 1993, ISBN 978-3-901-19209-8 .
  • Femina Politica , issue 2/2002: Focus: Gender democracy - a new feminist model?
  • Heinrich Böll Foundation (ed.): Dare gender democracy !, Königstein / Taunus, 2002.
  • Heinrich Böll Foundation: Writings on Gender Democracy (14 volumes)
  • Walter Hollstein: Gender Democracy. Men and women: live better together. Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 978-3-8100-3978-1 .
  • Annette Jünemann: Gender Democracy for the Arab World. The EU funding policy between state feminism and Islamism, Wiesbaden 2014, ISBN 978-3-658-04941-6 .
  • Helga Lukoschat : The concept of gender democracy and its implementation in organizations , in: Equal Opportunities Office of the City of Stuttgart (ed.): Opportunities and Risks of Administrative Reform for Women, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 6-13.
  • Ministry of Labor, Women, Health and Social Affairs: Gender Mainstreaming in Saxony-Anhalt, Magdeburg 2001
  • Birgit Sauer : State, Democracy and Gender - Current Debates . (PDF document) In: gender… politik… »online« , 2003.
  • Peter Döge: Gender democracy as a critique of masculinity: blockades and perspectives for a reorganization of the gender relationship. Bielefeld 2001.

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Peter Döge: Gender democracy as a critique of masculinity. Blockages and perspectives for a redesign of the gender relationship . Bielefeld 2001.
  2. ↑ Beyond EMMA. Or: How are the knowledge and discussions of feminism made . In: UTOPIE Kreativ. No. 158, December 2003, pp. 1144-1146.
  3. ↑ Beyond EMMA. Or: How are the knowledge and discussions of feminism made . In: UTOPIE Kreativ. No. 158, December 2003, pp. 1144-1146.
  4. ^ Test the West: Gender Democracy and Violence. Vol. 1 of violence against women, women against violence. Edited by Johanna Dohnal, Federal Minister for Women's Affairs, Vienna 1993.
  5. ↑ Beyond EMMA. Or: How are the knowledge and discussions of feminism made . In: UTOPIE Kreativ. No. 158, December 2003, pp. 1144-1146.
  6. ↑ Gunda Werner: Gender Democracy 2000. Ten theses for discussion. October 1999 (PDF document).
  7. ↑ Helga Braun: Dare gender democracy! In: Dare gender democracy. Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Königstein / Ts. 2002
  8. ↑ Juliette Wedl, Jutta Bieringer: Gender Democracy - Conceptual History and Problem Areas. An introduction. ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Femina Politica , 2/2002 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.femina-politica.de
  9. ↑ Premises of a gender-democratic form of organization ( memento of the original from December 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Gunda Werner Institute  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gwi-boell.de
  10. ↑ Birgit Sauer: State, Democracy and Gender - Current Debates. (PDF document) In: gender… politik… 2003.
  11. ↑ Statutes of the Heinrich Böll Foundation There it says in § 2 (3): “A particular concern for her is the realization of gender democracy as a relationship between the sexes that is free of dependence and dominance. This joint task is a key model for internal cooperation as well as for public activities in all areas. "
  12. ↑ statutes ver.di - United service trade union, September 2015 There it says in § 5.3 (f): "To achieve these goals serve in particular: Realization of gender democracy and equal participation of women and men in business, economy, society and politics, too using gender mainstreaming. "
  13. ↑ GEW: Statutes - Regulations - Guidelines, July 2014 ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF document) There § 3 (d)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gew.de
  14. ^ Federal statutes of the DIE LINKE party. § 10 Gender democracy There it says, oriented more towards principles of equality than specifically gender democracy, u. a .: “The political decision-making of women in the party must be actively promoted. It is the party's aim that women are neither discriminated against nor hindered in their political work. "
  15. ↑ KjG - Positions: Gender Democracy ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kjg.org