Grußwort Bürgermeisterin Christine Strobl

Ladies and gentlemen, dear women, I usually begin my opening remarks like this. I am very pleased to welcome so many of you here in the hall of the Old Town Hall. It is a great joy to see many familiar faces but also new ones. It is important that we have a broad base when it comes to women's rights. Allow me to especially welcome some guests: first, the active colleagues from the political level. I begin with the highest level represented today: from the Bavarian state parliament, former colleague Gülseren Demirel. From the city council, Heimo Liebig, Hans-Dieter Kaplan, Ulrich Grimm, and Bettina Messinger, who chair the Equal Opportunities Commission. I also welcome some pioneers who have strongly supported this cause: Friedel Schreiter, former equal opportunities officer of the state capital Munich; former member of the Bundestag Hanna Wolf; and a former astrophysicist and city councilor, long-time president of the VDK. I thank Nicola Saal and her team for organizing this conference. I am pleased to welcome Dr. Kerstin Wolf, who will give a lecture, and Ms. Schäuble and Ms. R., who will present the study commissioned. And I am especially personally delighted that Brigitte Hobmeier is here today, who was in Vienna last night and came especially for this event. Thank you for your solidarity.

Today, 100 years ago, on November 30, 1918, the Imperial Election Law came into force. Women received active and passive suffrage. Until then, women were denied participation in the democratic process. We celebrate the introduction of women's suffrage as the introduction of general, free, and equal suffrage. I must point out that this did not come about by itself but was the result of a revolution, which is often downplayed. With the implementation of the results of this revolutionary movement, the central demand for women's suffrage was realized. Through petitions, assemblies, demonstrations, and publications, women's rights activists and feminists—bourgeois women, workers, socialists, social democrats, and communists—had fought for years for the right to vote and to be elected. Women like Anita Augspurg, Berta, Helene Stöcker, Willy Braun, Lila, Gustavo Heimann, Constanze Hallgarten, Gabriele Kretzer, Sarah Sonja Lerch, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, Rosa Kempf, and many others. These names are often not mentioned when the revolution is discussed. We must ensure that these women's names remain in the public eye and that part of this broad women's movement is not suppressed or reduced to a few names. That would not be appropriate.

The introduction of women's suffrage is only one milestone in a long series of rights that women have fought for: access to education, the right to organize politically, the right to free choice of profession without needing a husband's signature—that was abolished not so long ago. I told my daughter, and she didn't believe me. Now she knows, and I hope it has left a deep impression. We must be careful, given some currents in our parliaments, that these rights might come back onto the agenda. The right to self-determination over one's own body is also important. When we see how we have to argue about trivialities today, and that doctors who perform abortions are persecuted, we know which direction we could move in. No rights have been given to us; they had to be fought for. The women's rights activists on whose shoulders we stand achieved them, and it is our responsibility to advance equality. Almost 100 years after the introduction of women's suffrage in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is considered the most powerful woman in the world. The leader of the oldest German party is a woman, Andrea Nahles, and the armed forces are commanded by Ursula von der Leyen. Women have achieved much, but it is still not enough. The proportion of women in the German Bundestag after the last election, in some state parliaments, or in town halls shows that there is still much to do. We must openly discuss how to deal with parity. A quote I often cite from Elisabeth Selbert from 1981 still applies: 'The lack of recruitment of women to public offices and their low participation in parliaments is simply a permanent constitutional breach.' Even 100 years after the introduction of suffrage, we are far from parity in parliaments. From 2013 to 2017, the Bundestag had its highest proportion of women at 36.5%, now it is back to 30.9%. That also depends on the composition of the parties. The proportion of women in parties is below 50% in every party, actually below 40%. The higher the proportion of women in parties, the higher the proportion of female parliamentarians. Representation in parliaments is enormously important, but the opinion-forming process outside these structures is also crucial and must be shaped by women.

I personally belong to a relatively small minority: in cities over 100,000 inhabitants, the proportion of female mayors is 10.1%. I could tell you why, but that would take longer. It is linked to work structures, patriarchal hierarchies, and job profiles. Women are expected to be nice and friendly, while men who bang on the table are seen as dynamic and assertive. Women who do that are considered unpleasant. We women sometimes apply these standards to each other. A friendly smile is nice but doesn't always help. If our pioneers had always acted that way, we wouldn't be where we are today. I see a tendency toward being likeable and nice, and I would sometimes wish for something different. It is about motivating women, especially young women, to break out of this pattern and live their lives independently of external demands. That also applies to political processes. Women do not always make policy for women; we are not all of the same opinion. But women in this society have common identifiable concerns: lack of advancement opportunities, the gender pay gap, old-age poverty, sexual oppression. Not all women fight for women's rights, as we see in some Bundestag debates. We cannot bear the responsibility alone to improve women's living conditions; we are a minority in parliaments, which makes it harder to move big things. But male politicians must not be released from their responsibility under Article 3, paragraph 2 of the Basic Law: men and women are equal; the state promotes the actual implementation of equality and works to eliminate existing disadvantages. All members of the Bundestag are obliged to do this, regardless of gender. There is ample evidence that women's issues are overlooked, misunderstood, and sometimes suppressed when women are not involved in decision-making processes. Women can only bring issues that particularly affect them into political decision-making if they have the necessary political weight.

There are questions to discuss: why are women not more numerous in politics? Do women vote for women? Why do women not stand for election? What obstacles exist? I mentioned structures and job profiles. How can we change these structures and exert more pressure? The presentation of the study will highlight some topics. The study also shows that women participate politically beyond formal democratic processes, which is of great interest to us. As a city, Munich must take seriously the fact that we do not reach all target groups. That worries me personally. We need to consider how to use different, tailored instruments to enable diverse participation. The city council recently decided to introduce a gender quota for the appointment of committees. We will have to overcome obstacles, but with this decision, Munich has taken another step toward women's participation in political processes. A major democratic challenge for a city like Munich is how to handle political participation and include large parts of the population, such as those excluded from voting due to citizenship. What does it do to women without a German passport when they cannot vote in the city where they live? Another challenge is enabling political participation for all population groups. There is a shocking number: in the Bundestag, 86.9% of members have a university degree, and 20% are lawyers. In the population, only 18.5% have a university degree. Only 13% of Bundestag members have a secondary school leaving certificate, compared to 35.7% in the population. What does that mean? We are building an elite democracy that I can no longer call representative. What does it do to women in Munich trying to get by with difficult salaries when they feel their problems are no longer considered? I could also talk about people with disabilities: nearly 10% of the population in Germany have a disability, but only 3.3% representation in the Bundestag. That is not acceptable. We will not achieve one-to-one representation, but we must think about these things. We must think about the black cleaning lady in Munich who cannot vote, who participates in social life but whose work ensures that others' lives function well. When we talk about participation, these are issues, especially for us women.

The full title of today's event is 'Century of Women's Suffrage – Democracy of the Future Only with Us.' We must ask ourselves: who is this 'us'? And how do we want to shape this democracy? It is a demand that must be filled with life, otherwise we will drift into waters that shape a country I do not want. We need broad participation. It is a strenuous process, not easy, and will not happen without conflict. But it is a good process, a beautiful one, and one that can be fun. I hope this conference will be fun. I wish you all a good day with good discussions and good conversations. And one thing I know: we will keep fighting. Thank you.