Frauenpolitik#
Women's Issues have received increasing attention in western democratic societies since the late 1970s. Political action in favour of women's issues has taken different forms:
Autonomous action regarding women's issues has its roots, on the one
hand, in the Women's Movement of the 19th century and, on the other,
in that of the 1970s. Adherents deliberately stay aloof from
established institutions such as the political parties. They give
ample scope to women's needs and conceptions of the way in which they
want to organise their personal relationships, their lives, working
conditions and participation in political life, and favour actionist
forms of political activity.
At the institutional level in respect of women's issues are seen as
topics that have to be placed in the frame of reference of
governmental structures. Institutional policy-making focuses on the
inequality of women at work, in social matters and in politics as
compared with male standards. In terms of day-to-day policy-making it
is concerned with the achievement of equal rights (particularly by
legislative action). In so doing it relies on existing institutions
(including parliament and the government). Thus, Austria's political
parties have set up separate women's organisations to promote women's
causes. In addition, women's issues are also represented by special
women's institutions within the administrative and political system
(e.g. the Ministry for Womens' Issues or secretaries for women's
issues at municipal level).
Literature#
S. Rosenberger, Frauenpolitik in rot-schwarz-rot, 1992.