International Women's Day 2020
30 years of the Equal Opportunities Office in Chemnitz - celebratory event on 6 March, 5 p.m. Gender-equitable cities - symposium on 7 March, from 9.30 a.m.
30 years ago, on 26 April 1990 to be precise, the Karl-Marx-Stadt City Council passed a resolution to set up a municipal equal opportunities office and at the same time decided to create an associated women's meeting centre. The headline in the daily press at the time was: "Women - better entitled now than later" and the first sentence of the article read: "The women are waking up".
It's a good thing that women rebelled back then and began to demand equal rights, which already existed on paper in the GDR, in all areas of life.
Much has been achieved in terms of equality over the last 30 years, and the women of Chemnitz want to look back on this in a ceremony on 6 March 2020 at 5 p.m. together with guests from the twin cities of Tampere, Usti nad Labem and Łódź.
But even more important is looking forward, to the areas in which women are still disadvantaged: Political bodies are still disproportionately male-dominated, our language is orientated towards the generic masculine, there are fewer women in management positions and on boards, women are more affected by domestic violence and poverty in old age.
In a symposium on the topic of "Gender-equitable cities" on 7 March 2020, starting at 9.30 a.m., we want to discuss these and other topics with representatives from the partner cities and find out where we stand in terms of gender equality in Europe and what we can learn from each other and demand together.
Representatives of the media are cordially invited to these events.