Linke on equality and diversity

The Left wants to achieve equal pay and higher employment among women mainly through better childcare. In addition, the state government is to develop its own strategies against labor-market discrimination of people with a migration background and people of diverse gender.

Women should earn as much as men. More women should be able to work. This needs enough childcare, also in the late afternoon. Other groups should also get equal chances at work.

A lack of childcare should no longer limit women's paid work. The childcare gap in the late afternoon between 4 and 6 p.m. is to be closed. The existing state strategy on gender justice and equal pay is to be fully implemented. Separate equality strategies are to be created for people with a migration background and for people of diverse gender.

The Left calls for abolishing Section 218 of the criminal code, thereby legalizing abortion in principle. It wants to introduce a Bundesrat initiative for this. Doctors who perform abortions should clearly be free from criminal liability.

Abortion is part of the criminal code today. Section 218 sets the rules. The Left wants to abolish this section. Abortions should be legal in principle. Bremen should demand this in the Bundesrat.

The rule can only be changed at the federal level. Bremen is therefore to exert pressure through the Bundesrat. The program justifies the demand with legal certainty for the doctors who perform abortions.

The Left wants to upgrade occupations with a high share of women and ease women's access to better-paid fields such as IT. The state strategy on gender fairness and equal pay is to be implemented and support for single parents expanded.

Women often earn less than men. The Left wants to improve jobs where many women work. More women should work in well-paid jobs, for example with computers. Single parents should get more help. This includes flexible childcare.

Projects such as "F.IT – Frauen in IT" (women in IT) and the Avanja platform are to run permanently. The PAM and PAF programs for people with a migration background and for women who lost work in the pandemic are to be made permanent and expanded. The state strategy includes pilot projects and more money from the EU regional fund ERDF; at the federal level the party wants to develop the equality law further. For single parents, services such as VIA and the mobile childcare MoKi are to grow. Gender roles are to be broken up as early as career choice, for instance through early exposure to STEM occupations.

The Left wants to implement a strategy against unequal pay between women and men that involves all government departments. More women should work in jobs with social insurance coverage and in skilled and leadership positions.

Women often earn less than men. The Left wants to change that. All government offices in Bremen should work together on it. More women should have good, stable jobs.

The platform names enough good daycare places, wider collective bargaining coverage, family policy based on partnership and lifelong entitlements to further training as levers. According to the platform, the employment rate of women in Bremen and Bremerhaven is about 70 percent, near the bottom nationwide. New jobs in future-oriented sectors are meant to change that. Within companies, women on works councils should be strengthened; at the federal level, the party wants to make equality committees mandatory through the Works Constitution Act.

The Left wants to quickly implement the state action plan on the Istanbul Convention, the European treaty against violence toward women. It calls for more money for prevention and education, training for police and the justice system, and a ban on so-called knockout drops.

Many women experience violence, often at home. The Left wants more money for protection and education. Police and courts should be trained better. Knockout drops should be banned.

Prevention should start in daycare and schools, including training for teachers and social education staff that critically examines gender roles. Femicides should be named as such, and Bremen should push at the federal level for an independent monitoring body. Anonymous evidence collection at the violence protection clinic at Klinikum Bremen-Mitte should become better known. Services such as Schattenriss e. V. and preventive work with offenders are to be made permanent and expanded. GBL and similar substances should be classified as narcotics.

The Left wants more places in women's shelters and a central office that allocates them. For homeless, addicted and prostituting women, safe spaces, counseling and emergency sleeping places are to be expanded.

Women's shelters protect women from violence. The Left wants more places there. One central office should hand out the places. Women without a home should also get protection and help.

Special needs are to be taken into account, such as those of women with underage sons or victims of forced prostitution and human trafficking. A non-judgmental drop-in center is planned for homeless women with addictions, along with free access to toilets and showers. The counseling centers Nitribitt e. V. and “Marie” in Bremerhaven for sex workers should receive permanent funding. Awareness work in Bremen's Viertel district and at the Freimarkt fair should be reliably funded, and Bremerhaven should get comparable contact points independent of the police.

The Left wants to fund meeting places, counseling centers and cultural institutions for girls, women and queer people on a permanent rather than temporary basis. Grants should allow staff to be paid according to collective agreements.

Bremen has meeting places and counseling for girls and women. The Left wants to give them money for the long term. Staff there should be paid under union contracts. Women in politics should also get more support.

As examples, the platform names the girls' meeting place Lilas Pause, Mädchenhaus Bremen, the BDP girls' culture house, belladonna and the Bremen Women's Museum. For project work, there should be flexible funding channels that also work between budget negotiations. The equality office ZGF should get more money, and the state women's council should receive institutional funding. The party also wants to promote a political culture that takes account of work-life balance and women's need for protection.

The Left wants to declare International Women's Day on March 8 a public holiday in the state of Bremen.

March 8 is International Women's Day. The Left wants this day to be a public holiday. Then most people have the day off.

The platform refers to the day as International Women's Day of Struggle. The demand is linked to the aim of making women's political engagement more visible. The day is to be established as a statutory public holiday.

The Left wants to permanently fund and expand counseling, education and cultural programs for queer people. Medical care for trans and intersex people is to be improved.

The Left wants more services for queer people. Counseling and school education programs should get long-term funding. Trans people should get better medical help. Bremerhaven should get a meeting place for queer youth.

In the medium term, medical treatments during transition should be concentrated at one public hospital; psychotherapy and hormone treatment should also be easier to access. The contact person for queer people at the police should be secured for the long term and joined by a second position. School education by the Rat&Tat center is to be expanded. Also planned are a larger budget for queer cultural projects, a queer cultural venue, and contact persons in sports and in workshops for people with disabilities.

The Left wants a state law that broadens protection against discrimination, creates a right for associations to sue and enshrines participation rights for migrant self-organizations. Public housing companies are to allocate apartments under transparent rules.

The Left wants a new law against unfair treatment. Associations should be allowed to go to court for affected people. Immigrant groups should get fixed rights to have a say. Public offices should use more languages and plain language.

The law is to close gaps in protection in housing and anchor rights for bodies such as the Bremen Council for Integration. It is to expand multilingualism and plain language in public administration and regulate the use of interpreting services. For public housing companies, the party calls for allocation standards that avoid discrimination, pointing to allegations against BREBAU. Teachers are to get more training on racism, and anti-discrimination offices are to exist in health care too. People with a migration background are to be represented in institutions and leadership roles in line with their share of the population.