Mandatory equality strengthens local communities and democracy

Statement from the State Working Group of Municipal Equality Officers in Thuringia:

We Are the Gender Equality Officers

We are municipal gender equality officers in Thuringia. We know the people behind the numbers and statistics. We support women who have experienced violence. We assist single parents, coordinate support services, advocate for equal opportunities, and strengthen social cohesion in our cities and communities. Our work is not an ideology—it is responsibility in action.

This makes it all the more baffling to us that we have to justify our work time and again. While the challenges are growing, the very structures that support, protect, and enable people’s participation are now slated to be weakened.

This is not about our jobs. It is about the people for whom we are responsible. Gender equality is not an ideological project, nor is it a voluntary municipal service. It is a constitutional mandate and a prerequisite for a just, democratic, and livable society.

Every hour we spend justifying our legal right to exist is an hour we are unable to devote to women, families, and people who depend on our support. We stand for a society in which equality is not just lip service, but a lived reality. That is why we will raise our voices whenever the legal and constitutional mandate for equality is called into question. We do not want to spend our time defending our very existence. We want to do what we were appointed to do: support people, eliminate disadvantages, and help ensure that equality remains a reality in our communities.

Statement from the Federal Working Group of Equality Officers:

Mandatory Equality Strengthens Municipalities and Democracy

For the second time in just a few months, the legal enshrinement of municipal gender equality work in Thuringia is under threat

The Federal Working Group of Municipal Women’s Offices and Gender Equality Offices (BAG) strongly criticizes the latest draft bill in the Thuringian State Parliament, which aims to repeal the legal obligation to appoint municipal gender equality officers.

After an initial bill to abolish key gender equality policy structures had already failed in the Thuringian state parliament this spring, the next attempt is now underway with the goal of undermining legally enshrined municipal gender equality work. The new draft bill justifies the abolition of the legal obligation primarily on the grounds of budgetary constraints, local self-government, and the claim that voluntary gender equality measures are sufficient to comply with the Basic Law. None of these
justifications holds up to closer scrutiny.

The budget argument falls short

The bill portrays municipal gender equality officers as a dispensable cost factor that competes with mandatory tasks such as fire safety or infrastructure. This comparison falls short, because municipal gender equality officers perform a legally mandated duty and carry out concrete work every day for local residents. They provide confidential counseling to people who experience discrimination or disadvantage, support victims of gender-based and domestic violence, connect them to support services, and help ensure that local protection and counseling services function effectively and are further developed.

At the same time, they actively shape their communities. They incorporate gender equality considerations into urban and regional development, advocate for safe public spaces, accessible infrastructure, and mobility options tailored to people’s needs, and help ensure that families, single parents, and older adults are taken into account in municipal planning. They support women as they take on roles of responsibility in local politics, support local networks, and help secure funding for projects.

Furthermore, the supposed savings are disproportionate to the follow-up costs that may arise if effective prevention and support structures are weakened, funding is no longer secured, or planning fails to adequately take important population groups into account. Dismantling mandatory gender equality structures therefore does not save money; it merely shifts costs and risks into the future.

Voluntary measures do not fulfill the constitutional mandate

Particularly problematic is the draft bill’s assertion that Article 3, Paragraph 2, Sentence 2 of the Basic Law is already fulfilled by the fact that municipalities can appoint gender equality officers on a voluntary basis. It is precisely this view that is refuted by the legal opinion commissioned by the BAG and authored by Professor Dr. Ulrike Lembke.

The legal opinion reaches a clear conclusion: The state is constitutionally obligated to provide effective and institutionally safeguarded structures to promote de facto equality. The mandate for gender equality must not be shifted to voluntary action or non-binding solutions. Legal provisions that abolish existing gender equality structures or leave their establishment to the discretion of municipalities do not fulfill this constitutional mandate.

A statutory mandate without binding responsibilities remains a mandate on paper. Experience shows, especially in times of tight budgets, that voluntary measures are inevitably the first to fall victim to cost-cutting measures. Consequently, a legal entitlement would effectively become a municipal “may-do” provision, contingent on the budget situation and local political majorities. This results in a patchwork approach to the exercise of a fundamental right. This contradicts the constitutional right to reliable and effective implementation of the state’s obligations to protect and promote equality.

In other words: The draft bill not only fails to recognize the purpose and function of municipal gender equality work, but it also contradicts the constitutional requirements for implementing the mandate for gender equality.

Democracy Needs Gender Equality Structures

Those who seek to dismantle these structures are not weakening bureaucracy, but rather the infrastructure of the rule of law and democracy. The revised bill demonstrates once again: This is not about administrative simplification, but about dismantling binding gender equality structures. The BAG therefore calls on the democratic parliamentary groups in the Thuringian State Parliament to take the constitutional mandate for gender equality seriously and to continue to ensure that municipal gender equality work remains legally binding:

“Equality is not a voluntary municipal service. It is a constitutional mandate. Anyone who seeks to eliminate its institutional foundations calls into question the binding implementation of a fundamental right.”