Participation in nationwide action programme

At just 28 per cent on average, women are still significantly underrepresented in municipal councils. The proportion of female district councillors is as low as 9.5 per cent and only one in ten town halls is run by a female mayor. In the "Central Saxony" region, women make up 11.63 per cent of district councillors and 19 per cent of town and municipal councillors on average.

The "Sachsens Mitte" region - the districts of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, Mittelsachsen and Meißen - wants to change this and sustainably increase the proportion of women by participating in the "Municipal Action Programme - Women in Politics!". Over the next year and a half, support and networking activities will be implemented in collaboration with the project team, a non-partisan and supra-regional mentoring programme as well as advisory formats and networking meetings will be offered and accompanied by public relations work.

On 19 April 2023, an independent and expert jury chaired by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) selected the ten regions for the second cycle of the programme. The "Sachsens Mitte" region is one of these ten model regions and will officially begin its work in June.

Teresa Schubert, Equal Opportunities Officer of the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district, is responsible for coordinating and implementing the programme. The partner regions will form steering groups by the start of the next round in June in order to draw up a regional action plan and coordinate local activities.

If you are interested in joining the steering group or providing support for individual events, participating in the mentoring programme or for further information on the programme, please contact the coordinator in the district of Meißen:

Equal Opportunities Officer of the district of Meißen
Gabriele Fänder
Telephone: 03521 725-7229
E-Mail:

Background:

The "Municipal Action Programme - More Women in Politics" project is funded by the BMFSFJ and implemented by the EAF Berlin in cooperation with the Deutscher LandFrauenverband e. V. (dlv). It combines motivation and empowerment as well as needs-based support for interested female candidates and already active female politicians, for example through a mentoring programme with workshops or training sessions. The selected model regions also benefit from various support and networking activities in the region. The participating regions also receive a financial subsidy for the implementation of the measures.

In this way, the action programme aims not only to increase the proportion of women in city and municipal councils, district councils and top municipal positions in the long term, but also to initiate structural changes that have a positive impact on the participation of women and the acceptance and attractiveness of local politics. The regions themselves decide where to focus: for example, meeting times can be reviewed and adapted to allow parents, carers and working people to attend, expense allowances can be renegotiated or the culture of discussion and debate can be made more appealing to women and younger people.

One focus of the programme is on rural regions. Women are generally more underrepresented there than in large cities, which means that the barriers to getting involved in local politics are even higher.

The EAF Berlin and the dlv advise, accompany and support the regions throughout the implementation of their activities. The programme receives further support from the three municipal umbrella organisations - the German Association of Districts, the German Association of Towns and Municipalities and the German Association of Cities - and from the Federal Association of Municipal Women's Offices and Equal Opportunities Officers.