SPD on equality and diversity

The SPD wants equal opportunities for women and men at work. Family-friendly working-time models are meant to distribute paid work and care work more fairly, and more women are to be drawn into STEM jobs and the skilled trades.

Women look after children and relatives more often than men. This puts them at a disadvantage at work. The SPD wants to change that. Working hours should fit family life better. More women should take up technical jobs and skilled trades.

The program notes that women still do more care work and face career disadvantages as a result. Gender-sensitive career guidance, together with funding and campaigns, is meant to bring more women into STEM jobs and the trades. The SPD sees a need for action in the public sector as well as in private companies. The party treats gender equality as a binding standard for all policy areas and levels of government.

The SPD wants to back initiatives that remove abortion from criminal law and to replace mandatory counseling with a right to counseling. It bases this on women's right to reproductive self-determination.

Abortion is part of criminal law today. The SPD wants to change that. Women should no longer have to go to counseling. But they should have a right to counseling. There should be doctors nearby who perform abortions.

The platform calls for reliable abortion care close to where women live. The SPD wants to examine how publicly funded hospitals with a gynecology service group can perform abortions. In medical school, the topic is to become part of the catalog of learning goals. The SPD also wants access to contraceptives free of discrimination.

The SPD treats inclusion as the yardstick of social policy. Accessibility and assistance are to be expanded, the allowance for deaf people raised and a regularly meeting disability parliament set up.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The SPD wants more accessibility and more help in daily life. Deaf people should get more money. There should be a disability parliament that meets regularly.

Assistance services and inclusive structures are to grow and be reachable close to home. Benefits for sign language interpreting are to be widened and better funded. For older people, funding for the state seniors' council is to be made permanent in order to support local seniors' advisory boards. The platform counts meeting places such as multigenerational houses and senior centers as part of social infrastructure.

The SPD wants to expand women's shelters, safe apartments, and counseling centers statewide and implement the requirements of the Istanbul Convention and the Gewalthilfegesetz (federal violence assistance act). Every affected woman should find help quickly anywhere in the state. The platform points to a rise of about 33 percent in recorded domestic violence cases between 2020 and 2024.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. There should be more women's shelters and safe apartments. There should be counseling in rural areas too. No woman should have to pay for her place in a shelter. Violence on the internet should also be prosecuted.

Counseling would be strengthened, especially in rural areas, through branch offices, mobile services, and digital access, and made accessible. Multi-year funding contracts, pay under collective agreements, and paid on-call duty are meant to retain skilled staff. The state would cover the daily rates that women without a benefit entitlement currently pay themselves in shelters. Digital violence such as cyberstalking or cybergrooming would be prosecuted consistently and professionals trained on it. The Vera office against trafficking of women and forced marriage would get a branch in the south of the state, and proactive work with perpetrators would be examined. Institutions such as schools, youth services, and care facilities would be required to develop protection plans that also take queer-sensitive aspects into account.

The SPD wants to introduce a parity law that ensures equal participation of women and men in the state's parliaments. It argues that equal democratic participation requires adequate representation.

There are more men than women in the parliaments. The SPD wants to change that. A law should make sure there are as many women as men. This is called a parity law.

A parity law usually requires that candidate lists alternate between women and men or contain equal shares of both. The program ties the plan to the goal of sharing power and responsibility equally between the sexes. In the SPD's view, this would make democracy represent all people.

The SPD wants to make March 8 a public holiday and create a state anti-discrimination law. Equal opportunity officers are to get more rights, including their own right to sue.

March 8 is Women's Day. The SPD wants it to be a public holiday. A new law should protect people from unfair treatment. Equal opportunity officers should be allowed to go to court.

The Frauenfördergesetz (law on the advancement of women) is to be updated to secure equality in public administration, business and politics. The state program for gender equality is to get binding goals, enough money and clear responsibilities. Anti-racism education is to grow in public administration, schools and the police. Interpreting services in health care are to be reliably funded. The action program against antisemitism and the "Schule ohne Rassismus" (school without racism) program are to be strengthened. Initiatives for human rights and against hate are to receive reliable funding.

The SPD wants to continue the state program "Queer leben in Sachsen-Anhalt" and give it fixed goals and sufficient funding. The centers for gender diversity are to grow into places for counseling and care.

Queer people are, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. The SPD wants more counseling for them. A study should show how they live in the state. The state program for queer people should go on.

A study is to look at the living situation of queer people, especially trans, intersex and nonbinary people. The centers are to work across disciplines. The state coordination offices are each to get one full-time position. Training on diversity and against racism is to be strengthened for medical and nursing staff.

The SPD wants public administration and public institutions to act as role models for equality and respect. It is also considering evaluating the state budget for its effects on the different genders.

Public offices should be a role model for equality. They should accept names and pronouns that people choose themselves. They should use language that includes all genders. The SPD is also looking at how state money affects women and men.

Public offices are to recognize self-chosen names and pronouns and use gender-sensitive language. Staff are to be made aware of queer concerns in training and continuing education. The SPD is also examining gender budgeting for the entire state budget. This approach makes visible how public spending affects the genders and assesses it from an equality perspective.