Manuela Dörnernburg, Commissioner for Gender Equality of the State of Brandenburg, Saxon State Secretary Dr. Gesine Märtens and the equal opportunities officers of the towns and districts of Lusatia came to Senftenberg on 7 June 2021 for the second alliance meeting of the Lusatian equal opportunities officers. The aim of the alliance is to highlight the cross-border significance of the gender perspective in structural change.

The idea for this alliance came from the municipal equal opportunities officers of Lusatia in Saxony and Brandenburg; Sabine Hiekel (Cottbus), Elke Voigt (Dahme-Spreewald), Ute Miething (Elbe-Elster), Lisa Temesvari-Alamer (Spree-Neiße), Fränzi Straßberger (City of Bautzen), Ina Körner (District of Bautzen), Ines Fabisch (District of Görlitz) and Johanna Zabka (Upper Spreewald-Lausitz).

At this second meeting of the Lusatian representatives, gender equality policy positions on structural change in Lusatia are to be coordinated and a strategy for joint action developed. Ms. Dörnenburg, State Commissioner for Gender Equality of the State of Brandenburg, Dr. Märtens, State Secretary and Jana Rothe, Head of Department for Gender Equality in the Saxon State Ministry of Justice and for Democracy, Europe and Equality as well as the District Administrator of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district Siegurd Heinze were present as supporters of gender-equitable structural change on the state policy side.

he current process clearly shows the lack of relevance of gender-specific criteria - for example when dealing with jobs that are only secondarily affected by structural change but are predominantly occupied by women.
 

The result of the meeting is a joint position paper. In it, the equal opportunities officers formulated their demands:

• Gender-equitable distribution of structural change funds
• equal representation on all committees
• a supra-regional committee or advisory board that supports, integrates and monitors compliance with gender-equitable and participatory requirements
• Methodical diversity instead of monotonous marathon meetings.
   

The Alliance of Gender Equality Officers is the result of cooperation between the TRAWOS Institute at Zittau Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the district of Görlitz, implemented by the F wie Kraft platform. The platform was represented at the meeting by Dr. Julia Gabler, Marie Melzer and Pauline Voigt.