Excerpts from "Women in Germany" [Published 11/30/2005 by the Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth]
Original URL: http://www.bmfsfj.de/Publikationen/women-in-germany/ Follow this link for much more information, e.g. for an LLJ!
A first overview
At the end of 2002, the Federal Republic of Germany had an overall population of 82.5 m people, 42.2 m (51.2 %) thereof women and 40.3 m (48.8%) men. Women thus are in the majority. Among young people, there is an almost balanced ratio between women and men: in 2002 there were about 8.3 m girls and young women below 20 and 8.8 m boys and young men of this age group in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Among the elderly, however, women predominate: in 2002 there were 8.7 m women and 5.7 m men of 65 and up. At the end of 2002, one out of seven German inhabitants was female and 60 years of age or older.
Women’s life expectancy is higher than men’s. In 2001, female newborns in the Federal Republic of Germany had a life expectancy of 81.1 years on average, male newborns of 75.1 years.
In 2002, there were 7.3 m foreign residents in the Federal Republic of Germany, 3.47 m (47%) thereof women and 3.87 m (53%) men. The proportion of girls and women of foreign origin over the past decades has seen a sharp increase through marriage migration and births in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In April 2002, almost 81% of the population in the Federal Republic of Germany lived in families, including married couples having no children in their household (any longer). About 54% of the population lived in parent-child common households, while 2.4 m were single parents, 84 % thereof single mothers. One out of six single mothers with children under age is dependent upon income support, while, in contrast, only one man out of seventeen with children is dependent upon such supplement to his livelihood.
There is an increasing diversity of kinds of family: family may mean children living with their married or unmarried parents, with their single mothers or fathers, with adoptive, step or foster parents. The number of cohabitating couples has further increased and in 2002 stood at 2.2 m (2000: 2.113 m), 31 % of these including children. The number of single-person households also increases steadily – in April 2002 the number was 13.7 m. While one out of five women lives alone, only one man out of seven does so.
In 2002, there were 391,963 weddings. 15.9 % of all weddings in 2002 were binational, i.e. 26,057 German women married a foreign man and 36,411 German men married a foreign woman. In 2002, the average age of getting wed was 31.8 for men and 28.8 for women.
In the same year, about 204,214 couples were divorced; the average duration of a marriage until the time of divorce was 12.9 years. 49.9 % of divorced couples had joint children at the time of their divorce.
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In the Federal Republic of Germany equal rights of women and men are constitutionally guaranteed in Art. 3 Par. 2 as a basic right. In order to pursue an active equal opportunities policy for women and men, Art. 3 Par. 2 of the basic law was amended in 1994 by a constitutional obligation of the state to enforce real equal opportunities. Legislative, executive and judicative estates are all bound by this cogent right. Any woman or man whose right thus laid down is being infringed has recourse to legal action.
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These days, it is deemed a matter of course that girls and young women receive the same qualified school education that boys or young men do. They are now even the majority at intermediate and grammar schools. In 2002/03, for example, the proportion of girls among pupils attending Realschulen was 50.7 %, for Gymnasien 54.4 % and for Hauptschulen 43.7 %. [Very generally speaking, the Gymnasium prepares students for higher education; the Realschule prepares students for middle level clerical and service industry jobs, and Hauptschulen prepare students for blue collar jobs]
Today, an ever increasing number of girls decide to go to university. In the winter semester 2002/2003, 50.6% of all first-year students were women. All higher education institutions taken together, i.e. incl. art colleges and Fachhochschulen (technical colleges of higher education), in the winter semester 2002/2003 the share of female students was 50.1 %.
The share of girls and women has also risen in vocational training over the past decades. While in 1972 the share of female trainees had stood at 35.8 %, it peaked in 1990 at 42.6 % and has hence seen a slight decline to 41% in 2002.
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Despite women taking up a career at an increasing rate, the labour market is still markedly differentiated along female and male occupations. These days, gainful employment has an important role to play in women’s outline of life. Of 27.3 m women between 15 and 65 in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2002, 16.2 m were gainfully employed, which is a share of women among all gainfully employed people of 44.3 %.
In April 2002, 64.4 % of all women between 15 and 64 years with children under age (in the household) were in gainful employment, almost two thirds (61 %) in part-time work. Of all single mothers with children below the age of 18, 64.6 % had a job, married mothers at a rate of 63.5 %.
The assignment to women of the traditional role of bearing the main responsibility for family work means that women, as a rule, have intermittent careers and are predominantly employed at intermediate or low levels. In planning or organisational jobs and in managerial positions, women are underrepresented and, on average, still earn less than men do.
Women in the old Länder these days are no longer affected by unemployment at a disproportionately high rate when compared with men. In 2003, unemployment among women in the old Länder at 7.7% was below the proportion of men, which was 8.9 %. In the new Länder, the unemployment rate for men is the same as for women (18.6 %).
In order to improve mothers’ and fathers’ participation in working life and the reconcilability of family and gainful employment, the Federal Government, among other measures, has introduced a more flexible system of child-raising leave, operative since January 1, 2001. This measure makes it easier for fathers too to more engage in child-raising and family work. The new Federal Act on Child-Raising Benefit enables, for example, mothers and fathers to take child-raising leave simultaneously. During such period, they are also legally entitled to do part-time work of up to 30 hrs per week each.
From 2005, the Federal Government will make available Euro 1.5 bn for the expansion of child care for under 3-year-olds and in this current legislative period a total of Euro 4 bn for the expansion of full-time day schools.
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With regard to women’s and men’s wages and income, the Federal Government submitted an extensive report to the Lower House of Parliament in 2002. This reveals, among other things, that women in the old Länder only have 75% of men’s income on average, while in the new Länder it is 94 %.
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The political parties have recognised that they cannot do without the specific experiences and expertise of women. In the 15th Deutsche Bundestag (Lower House), 32.8% or 198 of all 603 members in total are women (2003). This is the highest share of women in the history of the Federal Republic. [...]
In 2004, the Federal Government had six female Cabinet ministers, which is an almost equal representation (the Cabinet has 14 members in all). This is, again, the highest number in the history of the Federal Republic. In 2002, the proportion of women in the trade unions was 31.8 %. Of the members of the Protestant Churches and the Catholic Church, more than half are women. Among the active church members and, in particular, volunteer workers, women predominate at any rate. Increasingly, official church bodies also deal with women’s issues.
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Women and working life
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Almost 60% of all women are gainfully employed. The rate of women in gainful employment, i.e. the proportion of women in paid jobs, has risen continually over the past few years and now stands at 58.8% nationwide (microcensus 2002; men: 71.9 %). [...]
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No change in focusing on typically "female occupations." The employment of women focuses on comparatively few jobs in both the old and the new Länder. A breakdown by individual occupational groups shows that 70% of all women are employed in only twelve occupational groups. In the main, these are service jobs with low qualification requirements and scant chances of advancement. Most women do clerical jobs, work as shop assistants or in healthcare. By contrast, they are underrepresented in manufacturing jobs, natural-scientific/technical occupations, i.e. engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics and technology.
The reason is often their original training. Though an increasing number of women – especially young women – have completed their vocational training, it is still traditional patterns of behaviour which determine their choice of training and occupation. The most common occupations requiring training in both East and West are office clerk, retail clerk, hairdresser and doctor’s assistant.
Women in managerial positions are an exception. In May 2000, 11 % of all women in dependent employment (1996: 10 %) stated they were employed as executives or obtained a high-ranking position, 10% were managers and 1% senior civil servants. Thus, about a third of all managerial positions in industry, the service sector and public administration were occupied by women (1.6 m), more than two thirds by men (3.5 m). [...] Only among the under-30-year-olds were women and men equally represented in managerial positions with 7 % each out of all dependently employed women and men of this age group.
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Ever more women start their own business. From 1991 to 2002, the number of self-employed women in the Federal Republic of Germany rose by almost 250,000 or 30%. Nonetheless, their share among self-employed people is still fairly small. According to the microcensus, in 2002 there were 1 m self-employed women, which is a proportion of women among self-employed people of 28%, with men having a share of 72 %. In April 2002, the self-employment rate of women with 6 % was only about half that of men (13%). [...]
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Equal pay for equal work. The demand for equal pay for equal work is one of the oldest objectives of the women’s movement, and the legal situation has been obvious now for 45 years: Basic Law, Civil Code (BGB), Federal Equal Opportunities Act and the EU directive on equal pay proscribe [=forbid] paying women less than men for equal or equivalent work.
Wages and salaries: women earn much less than men. The average income of women in full-time employment in West Germany is much below men’s. In West Germany in 2002, for example, a woman in dependent employment received between 70% and 71.1 % of gross monthly earnings of a male worker or salaried employee in manufacturing, commerce, banking and insurance; in East Germany women got between 77.1% and 77.9% of men’s income. Over a period of twenty years, the income gap in the West only narrowed by 2.8 %.
Income gaps caused by different occupational structures. The main reason for income gaps is no longer to be found in direct wage discrimination. There are a number of reasons and they can be put down to the still “gender-specifically divided labour market”: Women are less represented in middleranking or senior managerial positions and often employed below their level of qualification. They have a stronger presence in low-income sectors, which have a large number of “typically female” occupations at any rate. Owing to their family duties, women do less overtime than men and also less work taking hardship pay. In addition, they do less shift work taking shift work bonus. And not least, on account of the time they spent raising children they have a lower rate of years’ service and do much more part-time work than men.
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The Federal Government’s report on the occupational and income situation of women in 2002 [...]: The report's most important results:
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First-time armed service by women. Since the European Court of Justice’s ruling of January 2000, all career paths in the Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) are now open to voluntary service by women. On January 2, 2001, 244 female recruits were the first to volunteer for armed service. Now (January 7, 2004) a total of 9,828 female soldiers are officers, NCOs or in the ranks.
Female soldiers as medical officers or orderlies and musicians. Until the above-mentioned ruling, female soldiers were only allowed to serve as medical officers, orderlies or musicians. [...]
In 1994, the first woman was promoted to general and in the career paths of the medical and musical corps of the armed forces there are now about 5,200 female soldiers.
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Not enough female professors. Despite a broad base of highly qualified women, men still dominate the top positions in science and research. In 2002, women had a share of 11.9 % of all professorships, and in non-university research institutions 5.1% of managerial positions were held by women. As late as 2000, the first woman was appointed C4 professor for gynaecology, in 2001 the first woman obtained a chair in surgery.
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Social and legal situation of prostitutes improved. A special problem of prostitutes is the lack of social security, which makes them dependent on income support when they are too old or ill. Thus far, employment subject to social insurance was not possible for legal reasons, which made them even more dependent upon pimps and operators of brothels and prevented an improvement in prostitutes’ working conditions. The Prostitution Act, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, provides for an improvement in legal protection. They now have the opportunity to be either self-employed or employed subject to social security. The legal obstacles previously having prevented social insurance for prostitutes are being dispensed with. However, it will take some time until the new law will be made use of by the women and their environment.
No dependence on employer. Nonetheless, prostitution is not a “normal” occupation. An employer’s discretionary powers are limited. The Act is not supposed to improve the situation of brothel operators of punters. Abandoning prostitution should be possible at any time without a term of notice.
Advice and support, also for abandoning prostitution, is available at various advice centres and self-help initiatives. Bridging assistance by the Employment Agencies may also be considered.