FDP on equality and diversity

The FDP wants more women in leadership positions in companies and the public sector and wants shared leadership to become normal. Training and careers outside traditional gender roles would be promoted. Family time would be better recognized and returning to work made easier.

The FDP wants more women as bosses. Two people should be able to share one leadership job. Girls and boys should choose jobs freely, even unusual ones. People who cared for children should get back into work more easily.

Models such as job sharing and top sharing would become standard, and women and men in the same roles would be considered equally for further training. Careers in STEM fields would be promoted as well as in social professions such as childcare worker or nurse; career changers would get shortened training paths. Late careers and catching up on degrees would become easier. Further training would be easier to combine with family. Increasing part-time hours and moving from a mini-job into regular employment would be made more attractive.

The FDP wants to expand structures for women founders and make North Rhine-Westphalia the leading German state for female entrepreneurship. Networks, new event formats and more seed capital are meant to help.

The FDP wants more women to start companies. A network across the state should help. New events should encourage women. More investors should give women founders starting money.

The state-funded project "Women Entrepreneurs in Science" at the University of Wuppertal is to receive continued support in building a statewide network with the universities. New event formats are meant to reach women founders and those interested in founding across the state. The FDP also wants to win over more investors who provide women founders with seed capital.

The FDP wants to replace the state's gender equality act with a diversity act that covers disadvantages faced by all genders. The current quota rule is to give way to binding self-commitments.

The FDP wants a new law on equality. It should apply to women, men and non-binary people. The fixed quota should go. Instead, public bodies should commit themselves to diversity.

The new act is to make clear that equality means equal rights for all genders and is also to cover the concerns of men and non-binary people. They are also to be allowed to apply for the post of diversity officer. Merit is to remain the principle in hiring decisions. The FDP also backs job-sharing and top-sharing models with advice for companies and wants to evaluate the 'Girls' and Boys' Day Academies' and develop them statewide. Small and mid-sized companies are to get advice on diversity management.

The FDP wants to achieve full equality for LGBTIQ* people and rainbow families and to expand counseling and anti-discrimination projects. Police and the justice system are to get better at recognizing and prosecuting anti-queer crimes.

The FDP wants equal rights for queer people. There should be more counseling, mainly in rural areas. Police and courts should spot hate crimes against queer people better. The FDP also backs a federal self-determination law.

Funding for the organizations involved is to shift from temporary project money to permanent structural funding; self-help, counseling and the trans coordination office are to continue. Plans include awareness projects in schools and youth work, services for seniors, and LGBTIQ*-sensitive elder care with pilot facilities. Security authorities and the judiciary are to be trained to recognize homophobic and transphobic hate crime. The FDP backs federal government plans: ending the group-based exclusion from blood donation, adding sexual identity to Article 3 of the Basic Law, and replacing the Transsexuals Act with a self-determination act. Projects on the historical reckoning with persecution under the former Section 175 are to keep receiving funding.

The FDP wants to expand civic education on Judaism and antisemitism and make the post of antisemitism commissioner permanent. Jewish institutions are to remain protected.

The FDP wants to fight hatred of Jews. Schools should teach more about Jewish life. There should always be a commissioner against antisemitism. Jewish sites should stay guarded.

Jewish history in Germany is not to be taught through the Shoah alone; earlier and present-day antisemitism and modern Jewish life are also to be covered. Educational institutions are to be made more aware and encounter projects expanded. The FDP wants to help shape and implement the European strategy against antisemitism. Security measures at Jewish community facilities are to continue and be stepped up if needed. Student exchanges with Israel are to be intensified and the German-Israeli science camp revived.

The FDP wants to pull together and expand the state's work against discrimination in a new strategy. It opposes racism and group-based hostility and wants more democracy education for everyone living in the state.

The FDP wants a new plan against discrimination. Discrimination means treating people unfairly, for example because of where they come from. The state should do more against it. Everyone should learn more about democracy.

According to the platform, the values of the Basic Law should be taught from the moment of arrival and throughout everyday life. In the FDP's view, these rules apply equally to people with and without an immigrant background. The new strategy is meant to organize and strengthen what the state already does. The party also wants more democracy education for everyone living in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The FDP wants to make support structures for domestic violence crisis-proof. Plans include a coordination office for an overall strategy, an online register of available women's shelter places, and more shelters. Emergency shelter places are also to be created for men.

The FDP wants to protect people better from violence at home. There should be more places in women's shelters. An online list should show free places. Men should get shelter places too. A new office should plan all of this.

The coordination office is to work with the federal and state governments on a strategy to prevent and combat domestic violence against women and men. The register is to record available places across state lines and make them searchable. Shelter places for men are to be networked between the states. The platform bases this on experience from the COVID-19 pandemic.