Equal Pay Day and International Women's Day - demand equal rights!

Equal Pay Day aims to symbolically draw attention to the gender pay gap. According to the Federal Statistical Office, this wage gap is 18 percent (as of 9 March 2021). "Assuming that men and women receive the same hourly wage, then Equal Pay Day represents the day until which women work for free, while men have already been paid for their work since 1 January. If you convert wages into days, women work a total of 66 days for free."

The idea of Equal Pay Day is still relatively young. In the USA, the "Business and Professional Women" network first called for the "Red Purse Campaign" in 1988. The red purse was intended to draw attention to wage inequality. It was not until 2007 that this campaign was also taken up by "Business and Professional Women Germany e.V.". This idea then developed into Equal Pay Day in 2008, which is supported by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

The demand for equal pay is by no means a call of the late 20th century, but goes back in institutionalised form to the beginnings of the 20th century. An International Women's Day was first celebrated in the German Empire (1871-1918) in 1911. The demonstrators demanded social and political equality for all women (the right to vote and to be elected) as well as labour protection laws, equal pay for equal work, an eight-hour day, proper mother and child protection, the setting of minimum wages, and the outlawing of the impending world war. The demand for monetary equality has been an almost integral part of every International Women's Day since then. At the same time, demands of the day were also voiced, such as for legal abortion at the time of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), for resistance against the Nazi regime (1933-1945), and so on.

It is true that the demands of International Women's Day have always been closely linked to the economic context, but not exclusively. The demonstrators were not only concerned with women having an equal say in society, but also to live without the threat of violence and discrimination, and to take up gainful employment without the consent of their husbands. Other issues included the right to self-determination over one's own body, legal abortion, the rights of migrant women, and discrimination against queer and trans people.

Some of the demands raised at the beginning of March are over 100 years old, while others are only a few decades old. The recently published study "Equality: Women have caught up in education and jobs, but traditional structures are holding us back - especially in the coronavirus crisis" by the Hans Böckler Foundation's Institute of Economic and Social Research attests to continuing gender inequality in the categories of education, gainful employment, income, time, care work, and co-determination.