CDU on equality and diversity

The CDU wants to continue support services for LGBTIQ* people and rejects hate violence against different ways of life. It wants to examine funding for small, non-commercial Christopher Street Day events. Anti-discrimination work in the public service is to be expanded.

People love and live in different ways. The CDU wants everyone to live without fear. It wants to keep paying for services for queer people. It will look at money for small pride events. There should be less unfair treatment in public offices.

According to the platform, everyone should be able to live freely and without fear regardless of sexual identity. Funding for LGBTIQ* structures and projects across the state is to continue. Support for small, non-commercial pride events will be examined, with reference to generations who demonstrated for a life without discrimination. Anti-discrimination work is to advance in the state administration and the public service.

The CDU wants to make it easier to combine family and work and to help women return to their careers after starting a family. Childcare places, training, mentoring, and networks are meant to contribute. A pay atlas is to make differences in pay visible.

Women should have the same chances at work as men. The CDU wants enough childcare places. Women should return to work more easily after family time. A pay atlas should show where women earn less. More women should work in technical jobs.

The plan includes enough childcare places with flexible hours and reducing gender stereotypes as early as daycare. Employers are to be supported, for example with online training; at the federal level the CDU wants employment agencies to expand such offerings. Mothers without vocational training should be able to earn a qualification, and the share of female founders should rise. Also planned are a pay atlas for North Rhine-Westphalia, expansion of the "Girls' and Boys' Academies," mentoring programs including for women with an immigrant background, projects against long-term unemployment among women, a state alliance for women in STEM professions, and statewide "FrauenWirtschaftsTage" (women's business days).

The CDU wants to present a strategy for equal career opportunity in the state administration. Part of it is a quota for executive board positions in state-owned enterprises. The state equality act is also to be further developed.

In some parts of the state administration, few women or few men work. The CDU wants to change that. A quota should apply to top jobs in state-owned companies. A quota is a fixed minimum share. The state equality law should also be improved.

The strategy is meant to open opportunities for women and men wherever each is underrepresented in the state administration. A quota is planned for executive board roles in state-owned companies. The platform sees equality policy as a cross-cutting task to be developed into diversity management. The "Kompetenzzentren Frau und Beruf" (competence centers for women and work) are also to be developed further.

The CDU commits to the Istanbul Convention and wants to expand and securely fund support services for victims of violence. A statewide pact against violence is to be concluded with associations. Help for affected men is also to grow.

No one should have to suffer violence. The CDU wants more help for victims of violence. This applies to women and to men. Victims should be able to have evidence secured without giving their name. The state should make a pact against violence with associations.

The Istanbul Convention is a Council of Europe treaty on protecting women from violence. The CDU wants to expand the state's victim protection portal, push for anonymous evidence collection statewide, and continue the "Anti-Gewalt-Wochen" (anti-violence weeks), in future with a focus on violence against men. A "North Rhine-Westphalia Pact" against violence is to range from child protection to violence in care settings. Human trafficking and forced prostitution are to be fought further, preventive work with perpetrators strengthened, and the study on unreported crime continued. For men, plans include shelters, counseling, and a strengthened men's helpline.

The CDU wants to close the pay gap between women and men in academia and promote diversity at universities. Early-career researchers are to get more opportunities.

Women and men should earn the same at universities. The CDU wants to support diversity at universities. Young researchers should get better chances.

A declaration on equal pay drawn up together with the universities is to be implemented further. A program for diversity and inclusion management is planned. The programs for combining family, study and academic work are to be reviewed and developed further. Mid-level academic staff at universities of applied sciences are to be strengthened. Added to this are more student exchanges, a larger returnee program for researchers abroad and more continuing academic education.