Linke on equality and diversity

The Left wants to improve women's opportunities in the public sector and in business and to develop the state's Frauenfördergesetz (women's advancement act) into an equality act. Jobs in daycare centers, schools, hospitals, and nursing homes should be better paid because, in the party's view, they keep society running.

The Left wants better career chances for women. Women should apply for important jobs more often. Work in daycare, schools, and nursing should be paid better. The women's advancement law should become a new equality law.

The women's advancement act in force since 1997, which aims at filling half of all committee seats with women, is to be applied consistently. As a basis for an equality act, the party points to the recommendations drawn up under the state women's council; the new act is to cover all gender identities. The state program for a gender-equal Saxony-Anhalt is to be updated together with equality advocacy groups and made binding for state authorities. Social professions are to receive better working conditions in addition to more recognition.

The Left wants to secure equal access for women to university study and research positions, including in university leadership. It also wants to expand research that takes differences between the sexes into account, for example in how medications work.

The Left wants equal chances for women at universities. This applies to studying and to research jobs. Women should also be equally represented in university leadership. Research should pay more attention to differences between the sexes.

The party wants to promote gender diversity in academia and maintain a diverse research landscape. Women are also to be supported in skilled trades and vocational training where there is a need. The platform justifies gender-sensitive research by saying that bodies outside the male standard were long neglected and that drugs can act differently or harmfully on them.

The Left wants to strengthen counseling centers for women and abolish the personal contribution for staying in a women's shelter. Anti-violence projects are to receive permanent institutional funding, and shelter places and safe apartments are to be expanded.

The Left wants to protect women better from violence. Women should no longer pay anything to stay in a shelter. Counseling centers should get more support. There should be more places in women's shelters. Projects against violence should get lasting funding.

The pay grades of staff in anti-violence projects are to be reviewed so they are not put at a disadvantage. The projects are to offer services for children who are also affected, and trans women are to be accepted in shelters. Counseling centers against online hate are to be strengthened so that authors of hate messages face consequences. To implement the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty on violence against women, the party proposes an independent state monitoring body and a round table with NGOs. Those without secure residence status are also to get better legal protection.

The Left wants to make paid work, family work, and civic engagement easier to combine for women and men alike. People who care for relatives should be financially secure and supported when returning to work; daycare and after-school care are to be expanded.

The Left wants to value care work more. Care work means things like nursing relatives or looking after children at home. People who provide care should not be worse off. Men and women should share this work better. There should be more daycare and after-school places.

The platform points out that unpaid family work is done mostly by women. After a period of caregiving, people are to be helped back into employment through targeted support programs. Children and young people are to be introduced to everyday tasks early so that care work is shared more evenly in the future. At the same time, the party wants to prevent voluntary and unpaid work in health and nursing care from displacing paid jobs.

The Left wants to create a legal entitlement to help for all victims of violence that does not depend on gender, origin, or residence status. It also plans mobile counseling, an action plan against violence, and a coordination office.

The Left wants a right to help for all victims of violence. It should apply to every person. Counselors should reach out to victims themselves. An action plan should give the issue a firm place.

Mobile counseling would actively seek out those affected, for example in public places or in vehicles. The action plan would be used to train professionals who prevent violence and advise victims. A coordination office would bring projects together, evaluate them, and make sure the requirements of the Istanbul Convention are met. Awareness campaigns are meant to work preventively. The party also wants to recommend that the federal government suspend residence requirements for refugee women in cases of violence.

The Left wants to use the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states) to have the Basic Law also protect against discrimination based on sexual and gender identity. In the state, it wants to renew the action program for LGBTI+ acceptance, better protect CSD pride events, and anchor queer topics in education.

The Left wants to protect queer people better. The constitution should explicitly protect them from discrimination. Queer means, for example, lesbian, gay, or trans. Pride events should get more protection and money. Schools should cover queer topics.

The action program would be revised together with the community and funded, with a focus on rural areas, youth work, and seniors. Existing funding, for example for AIDS support organizations, would stay, the state coordination offices would grow, and the state sports federation would get resources for diversity in sports. Pride events would be protected by police, civil measures, and local authorities and supported with small grants in rural areas; the LGBTI+ contact person at the police would be strengthened. Queer topics would appear throughout the educational path, teachers and educators would be trained for this, and sex education in schools would be supported through outside providers. The party also wants to revive community venues such as bars, clubs, and meeting places.

The Left calls for accessibility in Saxony-Anhalt to become a binding obligation rather than an optional rule. There would be a mandatory upgrade program for all public transit stops. The party points to the ban on discrimination against people with disabilities in the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.

People with disabilities often run into obstacles. The Left wants to change that. Accessibility should be required. All transit stops should be rebuilt. Homes and websites should also be usable for everyone. The people affected should help decide.

Transit stops would get tactile guidance systems, timetables in Braille, audio announcements and step-free boarding. Housing would be accessible so that people can live safely and independently. The platform also calls for digital accessibility, equal opportunities in education and work, and a say for those affected. As examples of today's barriers it cites government offices without elevators, doctors' offices without wheelchair-accessible entrances and polling places without hearing loops.