"Gender Now" Initiative (formerly "Gender Days")
The first Gender Days (Gender Tage) took place in 2007. This initiative, dedicated to a different focal point each year, was created by the Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture in cooperation with the Women's Division at the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection.
The 2007 and 2008 Gender Days started on 3 November (International Men's Day) and ended on 10 December (International Human Rights Day).
The initiative was launched to promote gender sensitivity in schools. In a gender-sensitive school, equality of girls and boys, women and men is a cross-cutting issue. Girls and boys should be provided with equal options in order to fully develop all potentials of their personalities without any gender-specific restrictions.
In 2009, the Gender Days were redesigned as Gender Now Initiative (Initiative Gender Aktuell).
The goal of this modification is to prepare current topics that are relevant for (educational) policy in a gender-conscious manner for use by teachers and to raise awareness of the fact that teaching materials, background information, counselling and training offers are available all year round, not just at a specific time.
For 2009 till 2013 the following focal points and action periods were established:
Brochure (in German only): Geschlechtssensible Angebote zur Gewaltprävention im schulischen Bereich (2008) (PDF 780 kB)
Further information about the 2008 and 2007 Gender Days are provided (in German only):