Even though Bonn was quite early to set up an Equal Opportunities Office - the Bonn City Council had already passed a resolution to this effect at the end of August 1984 - the start for the first Equal Opportunities Officer, who was appointed on October 15, 1984, was not so easy. Initially, her task was to define her area of work. There were not yet many role models or empirical values nationwide, as Bonn was only the fourth municipality in the whole of Germany to start with this topic.
The basis for the establishment was the legal mandate arising from Article 3, Paragraph II of the Basic Law: "Men and women have equal rights." According to Section 5 of the NRW Municipal Code and the provisions of the State Equal Opportunities Act, the Equal Opportunities Officer is involved in municipal projects and measures that affect the interests of women or have an impact on equal rights.
At the time, the office was equipped with only a few things: a separate office on the eleventh floor of the City Hall on Berliner Platz, a telephone, a mechanical typewriter, a dictaphone, two filing cabinets and two visitor chairs.
Today, the Equal Opportunities Office is located on Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz under the management of Equal Opportunities Officer Stephanie Clemens-Krämer and with a team of four women and one man. A comprehensive range of counseling services is offered in individual rooms for employees of the city administration, but also for the city community.
Violence against women - an issue then and now
The most pressing issues in 1984 were employment and education, reconciling family and career, securing women's material existence and increasing the proportion of women in management positions. But violence against women, especially in the domestic environment, was also an issue - and unfortunately remains so to this day. In mid-1985, the Federal Criminal Police Office presented a scientific study on sexualized violence, and at the end of 1985 an expert report on the subject was drawn up. In 1984, the Counselling Centre against Sexualized Violence was founded in Bonn, with which the Equal Opportunities Office works closely. Projects include the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg Victim Protection Working Group and "Luisa is here", a low-threshold support program for women who feel harassed at events or in clubs.
For the "International Day against Violence against Women" on 25 November, the Equal Opportunities Office has been cooperating for years to implement poster campaigns with the names of support services or to display the "No means no" cards on which the contact details of advice and support organizations are listed. These can also be seen on the now more than 30 orange-colored benches throughout the city. The United Nations has chosen the color orange as the signal color for the International Day against Violence against Women and Girls. The day is also known as "Orange Day" and is intended to raise awareness of the issue and call for solidarity with and help for those affected.
From the very beginning, the Equal Opportunities Officer sought contact with the many associations working for women and equality in Bonn. Today, on the initiative of the Equal Opportunities Office, International Women's Day on 8 March is celebrated together with many stakeholders with lectures, readings and workshops as well as an information event with around 30 information stands from Bonn organizations, advice centres, municipal offices and associations.
In 1984, the city administration had only one head of office
When the first Equal Opportunities Officer took up her post, the administrative board of the city of Bonn was all male. Today, there are just as many women as men, and Katja Dörner is the second female Mayor of Bonn since 1984.
In 1984, there was only one female head of office in 36 departments - in the health department - and four female department heads. Today, women make up 44 percent of the heads of departments and 47 percent of women in management positions, with 61 percent of all employees being women.
This development can be traced back to the promotion of women. The first guideline on this was issued in 1991, the first plan for the advancement of women in 2001 and the current equality plan "2023 - 2027" presents almost 40 pages of facts and figures, quotas and, above all, the measures that are implemented and lived for gender equality and the advancement of women at the City of Bonn.
In 1984, women rarely applied for higher-ranking positions and hardly ever took part in further training measures. Today, there are numerous measures in place at the City of Bonn, including an internal mentoring program for and with women. Today, the proportion of women in further training measures is more than 60 percent and, on the initiative of the Equal Opportunities Office, more half-day training courses are also being offered.
Compatibility of family and career
A lot has changed over the past 40 years when it comes to work-life balance: in 1984, part-time work meant a half-time job from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. Today, the City of Bonn offers models ranging from eight hours per week to full-time part-time. The first teleworking jobs were introduced at the City of Bonn in 2000. 35 employees, all of them women, signed a teleworking agreement with the City of Bonn in 2002. The current service agreement on mobile working, which came into force in June 2023 and on which the Equal Opportunities Officer was also involved, offers employees a wide range of options to make their working day more flexible with models that allow up to 80 percent mobile working and even working abroad. Around 3,000 employees currently take advantage of this offer at the city. This is particularly beneficial for those who are caring for family members or looking after children. In addition, the flexitime framework is constantly being expanded for all employees. It is currently possible to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The City of Bonn successfully completed the "berufundfamilie" audit at the initiative of the Equal Opportunities Office and the Human Resources and Organization Office in 2020 and received the quality seal for a company work-life balance policy for the first time in March 2021. As an employer, this sends out a clear signal of family awareness. The Equal Opportunities Office is increasingly working on measures to reconcile life and work in order to increase the proportion of men working part-time and taking on parental and care leave. To this end, an internal contact point for men/fathers and a care contact point have been set up for employees.
Care work and parental leave: still mostly women's work today
However, the figures from 2022 also show that the city administration has a long way to go to achieve equal sharing of care and nursing work: 28% of all employees work part-time, 85% of whom are women. The proportion of women taking parental leave is 92 percent, while 80 percent of the eight percent of men take up to two months. The proportion of men on parental leave of up to 24 months is only less than one percent.
It is important to the Equal Opportunities Office to promote a family-friendly attitude within the city administration, with the family being a social network for the city of Bonn in which people with close personal ties take responsibility for one another. Outdated role stereotypes must be overcome.
Stephanie Clemens-Krämer and her team are also convinced for the future: "Equality benefits everyone. It is essential for our society. Equality only works together. Today, it's about ensuring that people can live equally well from their work, regardless of their gender, and that they also work together to look after those who need support."