Women In Employment : Germany

In order to give greater effect to the equality principle at work, the Federal Government adopted another law which covers such matters as the advancement of women in the federal administration, the allocation of more women to posts in public agencies, the prohibition of discrimination against women at work, and the prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace. Under the 1980 Act on the Equal Treatment of Men and Women at Work, women may no longer be discriminated against on grounds of sex. Other laws protect pregnant women and do not allow women to be given heavy manual work.

There has been a marked improvement in educational opportunities for girls and women, who can now attend any school or training establishment. About half of the pupils in the western federal states who have obtained university entrance qualifications so far in the 1990s have been women. Over 40 percent of all students in higher education are women. And the number of women who have completed a course of vocational training has increased significantly since the 1950s.

More than 55 percent of the women in Germany between the ages of 15 and 65 are in employment. Women have become indispensable in industry, the health system and education. But there is still discrimination: They tend to lose their jobs faster than men and find new ones less quickly, and they are offered fewer apprenticeships. Male employees still receive distinctly higher wages than their female counterparts.

Women who do work which is the same as or similar to that of men can assert their claim to equal pay in court. Discrimination occurs nonetheless in the differing assessments of the types of work. “Women’s work” pays less than “men’s work”. In the public service, the law has given women better opportunities for employment and promotion.

Discrimination against women at work occurs largely because their working life shows a different pattern. In former times, women often went into less demanding trades because they regarded employment merely as an interim occupation before starting a family. But today ever more women want to return to work after a period of child-raising. There are government reinte-gration programs to help them. Many women choose part-time work and this, too, is promoted by the Federal Government on economic and social grounds. At present, however, there are far too few part-time jobs available. In the new states the situation is different. In the former GDR, 90 percent of the women went out to work and were enabled, with public assistance, to combine work and family chores. As a result of the economic restructuring process, however, women in the east are losing their jobs at a disproportionately high rate. In 1996 as well, the unemployment rate for women was significantly higher than the rate for men. In addition to the numerous assistance programs offered by the federal, state and local governments to cope with these changes, many initiatives have been launched and associations established.