Viennese Greens demand more women in politics – what’s happening now!

Viennese Greens demand more women in politics – what’s happening now!

The Vienna Greens recently made a remarkable push for more gender equality in the local council. They would like to link financial club support to the proportion of women in political committees. The proportion of women in the newly elected Vienna municipal council is currently 41 percent, which shows that progress has been made in the capital. Nevertheless, the Greens emphasize that this is not enough to ensure fair political representation. Loud meinkreis.at The Greens consider themselves and the Neos to be the only parties that have 50 percent female representatives.

However, the application for gender-equitable club funding, which was submitted to the local council, was not approved and was rejected. The FPÖ criticized the proposal particularly harshly and described it as “completely far-fetched”. The Freedom Party currently has only one woman among its 22 elected representatives - a proportion of women of only 4 percent, which further fuels the debate about inequalities and the need for quota regulations.

Equality in focus

The broader discussion about women in politics shows that the fight for equality is not new. Since the introduction of women's suffrage in Germany after the First World War, women have advocated for equal political representation and influence. As the bpb.de informed, nowadays there is often discussion about the different dimensions of representation: descriptive, substantive, symbolic and formal. The descriptive approach, i.e. the proportion of women in political office, remains a major challenge.

In Germany, for example, it can be seen that the proportion of women in the Bundestag has stagnated at around 30 percent for over 20 years. Underrepresentation at the local level is also noted as a problem area, where only 25 percent of elected officials are women. This picture makes it clear that, despite legal quotas and various initiatives, there is still a lot of work ahead of us.

Political reactions and outlook

While the FPÖ opposes quota regulations, the Neos support the Greens' proposal and see equality as a necessity to promote democratic participation. The SPÖ also refers to adjustments to club funding that have already been made and which are aimed at promoting women's participation. The ÖVP, on the other hand, also opposes the requested changes and emphasizes that the voters' choice should be respected.

The debate about gender equality in politics in Vienna shows how important it is to think about quotas and support measures. The Vienna Greens are not only calling for a fairer distribution of political power, but also concrete financial measures to increase the proportion of women. This discussion is not only relevant locally; It is also very much in the context of international developments, as the Federal Foundation for Equality shows. It remains to be seen how politics will develop in the coming years and whether a rethinking towards a more equal political landscape can still take place.