Equality

The Basic Law of Germany states:

No one should have disadvantages, whether man or woman.

Women and men have the same opportunities.

And they have the same rights.

That means equality.

Privately or professionally, everyone should live the way they want to.

Equality means, for example:

Women and men receive the same pay for the same work.

Women and men share the care of the children.

The policy helps to achieve this.

We all have to work on it.

My name is Monika Björklund.

I am the Equal Opportunities Officer of the City of Beckum.

I care about the rights of women and men.

Women and men have the same rights.

My work is confidential.

That means: I don't tell anything else.

I have many tasks.

For example, I plan events.

Women with problems can come to me.

I also help with questions about equality.

I meet with other gender equality officers.

That's what we do in the district of Warendorf.

I also meet other gender equality officers from North Rhine-Westphalia and from all over Germany.

Together we think about what we can do.

The city of Beckum has to write an equality plan every few years.

There is a lot of information in the plan.

For example, it says how many women work for the city.

There are also tasks in it.

The tasks are to improve the work for women.

Many equality officers work alone.
They have to plan everything alone.

Then networking is important.
Networking means working together with other gender equality officers.
Or with counselling centres.
Or associations and groups.

Then you work together on a topic.