Gender democracy

Gender democracy is a normative idea related to gender mainstreaming. Its aim is to achieve democratic conditions between men and women within society as a whole, as well as specifically within companies, bureaucracies, and other organizations. Among other things, this is realized by means of gender trainings that raise awareness of existing inequalities and develop methods to democratize relations between genders. The term gender democracy was first coined and developed by German sociologist Halina Bedkowski.

According to Halina Bendkowski she developed the term and concept of gender democracy in the early 1990s during a "research trip to the US, which had been commissioned by Austria's Minister for Women, Johanna Dohal, with the aim of identifying innovative projects against domestic violence." Subsequently, in 1993, the term appeared on the title of a publication edited by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and Women's Affairs, "Test the West: Geschlechterdemokratie und Gewalt" (Test the West: Gender Democracy and Violence).

The pioneers of gender democracy refused to provide a fixed and static definition of the term. Bedkowski stated: "As soon as a term has been defined in a dictionary and recycled by other theorists, it will have lost most of its vitality. It is true, terms are alive - and this is especially true for terms that have been developed in the course of actual political conflicts." Gunda Werner, who in 1999 outlined the basic tenets of gender democracy for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, explained: "Gender democracy has no ready-made theoretical or practical precepts. It is an exploratory movement in search of new outlooks and models." Despite of this, some the fundamentals of gender democracy can be defined:

Gender democracy aims to achieve the equal participation of women and men in politics, the corporate world, and in all parts of society by reforming and abolishing undemocratic structures and all forms of power that are based on oppression and violence. This approach is based on a broad definition of democracy - one that demands equal rights and opportunities for people in all their diversity. As there is a large number of gender identities, gender democracy rejects the male // female dichotomy, argueing instead that each human being - female, male, or otherwise - must have the right and the ability to self-determine their lifestyles, type of relationships in ways that go beyond stereotypical notions and any type of essentialism about men and women.

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