Fields of action

Advising citizens is part of the Equal Opportunities Department's permanent remit. This involves equal opportunities in the event of disadvantages in everyday life. People seeking advice can contact the department in person, in writing or by telephone and make an appointment. Absolute confidentiality and discretion is guaranteed during the consultation.

The range of topics covered by the advice service is broad: from difficulties with the allocation of nursery places and childcare, sexist advertising and linguistic discrimination and bullying in the workplace to problems in refugee accommodation. Other important topics are the compatibility of family and career or (re-)entering working life.

Many years of experience with the advice service have shown that the protected situation is crucial for those seeking advice and that they often explicitly name their experiences of inequality for the first time during the advice session. The employees provide individual and case-specific help, for example by arranging the right contacts in the Stuttgart counseling landscape.

Contact:  Department for Equal Opportunities

Within the framework of equal opportunities, the department also advises all employees of the state capital Stuttgart, for example in recruitment procedures and in cases of discrimination and experiences of exclusion, mobbing or sexual harassment in the workplace. The goal is that the realization of equal opportunities for women and men is taken into account as a consistent guiding principle for the City of Stuttgart as an employer. And that structural unequal treatment is revealed and counteracted by appropriate measures.

Uncovering, improving and preventing disadvantages in opportunities

One of the tasks here is to investigate specific cases of disadvantages in terms of opportunity or to uncover them and develop appropriate measures to improve them. In particular, it examines the extent to which individual cases of disadvantage reflect structural forms of disadvantage and whether further changes are necessary and possible to support equal opportunities for employees at the state capital. The prerequisite for this work is close cooperation with the staff representatives, the individual departments and the main and personnel offices.

Target group and focal points

The target group includes women and men regardless of age, ethnic origin and nationality, religion and world view, sexual orientation and gender identity, physical and mental resilience and social origin, who are treated unequally due to one or more discrimination characteristics. This perspective makes it possible to analyze complex relations of inequality that cannot be explained by the category of gender alone.

In addition to general advice for individual employees and the management of the DV Equal Opportunity Working Group, there are the following focal points:

• Reconciliation of family, private life and career
• Re-entry, for example after parental leave
• International Women's Day
• Participation processes with employees
• Re-entry portal

Contact:  Franziska Haase-Flaig

Since the fall of 2016, the "Service Agreement on Equality and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men at the City of Stuttgart, including its own companies" has applied to employees of the City of Stuttgart. The aim of this service agreement is to promote equal rights and opportunities in working life regardless of gender. To implement the service agreement, a binding working group with equal representation from the administration and staff representatives has been formed. The management of the working group is the responsibility of the Equal Opportunities Department.

The Equal Opportunities Working Group meets regularly to actively promote the realization of equal rights and opportunities in working life regardless of gender. It helps to reduce discrimination and realize diversity within the city administration. In 2019, the working group, with the involvement of the specialist departments, drew up a catalog of measures to promote equal opportunities for employees of LHS Stuttgart.

The catalog of measures includes the areas of action

• Pregnancy/parenthood and returning to work
• Childcare
• Further development of the range of further training on the topic of diversity
• Equal opportunities in management
• Employees with care responsibilities

The following has been taken into account for the 2020/2021 double budget

• one full-time position for service, information and advice for employees on reconciling work and care.
• one full-time position to strengthen psychosocial counseling for employees with care responsibilities
• One full-time position for conceptual work on the topic of "Equal opportunities in leadership".
• Two full-time positions as pool positions for measures in the field of action "Equal opportunities in leadership".
• Immediate filling of vacancies due to maternity leave.

Contact:  Franziska Haase-Flaig

The Advisory Council for Gender Equality of the City of Stuttgart is an interface between politics and administration and an advisory body appointed by the City Council for the duration of its legislative period (5 years), consisting of 32 members and 47 deputies. As a rule, five meetings are held per year.

In addition to the representatives from all parliamentary groups and the full staff council, the advisory board is made up of honorary expert citizens. They represent the following areas of society: Education and qualification, labor market and economy, society, migration and security and culture. At the regular meetings, municipal policy issues and topics are discussed and advised on from the specific perspective of equal rights, equal opportunities and diversity, and recommendations are made.

The Advisory Board is managed by the Equal Opportunities Department. The topics to be discussed are prepared and processed there. For the department, the Advisory Board is an important body for providing expert advice on and communicating challenges and topics relevant to equal opportunities policy.

Objectives and topics of the Gender Equality Advisory Board

The members of the Advisory Board for Gender Equality pursue the goal of promoting equal opportunities for women and men in the state capital of Stuttgart at all levels and contributing their expertise. The topics cover the entire spectrum of gender and equal opportunities in terms of diversity according to age, social and ethnic origin, religion, sexual identity and disability. Current topics play just as much a role in the work of the Gender Equality Advisory Board as socio-political issues, such as the compatibility of family and career, domestic violence or the political participation of women.

Members of the Gender Equality Advisory Board

The General Staff Council of the City of Stuttgart is represented on the Advisory Board, as well as

• for the area of education and qualification: University of Hohenheim, Equal Opportunities Officer of the University of Stuttgart, Kinderhaus Regenbogen, Evangelische Fachschule für Sozialpädagogik and Trägerkreis berufliche Frauenförderung.
• for the area of labor market and economy: Allianz Deutschland AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Daimler AG, Klinikum Stuttgart, DGB-Region Nordwürttemberg, Agentur für Arbeit Stuttgart, Industrie- und Handelskammer Region Stuttgart and Handwerkskammer Region Stuttgart.
• for the areas of society, migration, security, culture and health: PARITÄTISCHE, Evangelische Gesellschaft Stuttgart e.V., Jugendhausgesellschaft, Polizeipräsidium Stuttgart, Evangelische Oberkirchenrat Stuttgart, Diakonisches Werk Württemberg, Türkische Gemeinde in Baden-Württemberg e.V., Arbeitskreis LSBTTIQ, Stadtjugendring Stuttgart e.V., Gesundheits-Laden e.V., Citizen.KANE.Kollektiv, treffpunkt 50plus, Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll.

Contact:  Kirsten Plew