The DZHW is actively committed to gender equality and equal professional opportunities for all its employees. The DZHW pursues this goal systematically and in all groups of employees. The declared goal of the DZHW is:
- the actual implementation of gender equality,
- the elimination of existing gender-based disadvantages and the prevention of future disadvantages, in particular disadvantages of women,
- improvements in family-friendliness and the compatibility of family, care and work for employees,
- an active stance against sexualised discrimination and violence.
At the DZHW, fulfilment of the set goals is understood as a cross-sectional task of the entire organisation. Existing structures and measures that address the declared goals have grown historically at the DZHW and are regulated in various documents. The DZHW receives special support through the appointment of the Equal Opportunities Officer and her deputy.
The Federal Equal Opportunities Act (BGleiG) is the legal basis for equal opportunities work at the DZHW. Accordingly, the DZHW is guided by the provisions of the BGleiG. This includes the preparation of a gender equality plan, which, according to section 11(1), sentence 1 of the BGleiG, is to serve the achievement of the Act’s goals as well as to regulate personnel planning and development . The overarching purposes of the Act are, according to section 1(2), to promote the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and to remedy the structural disadvantages of women through a targeted advancement of women. The goals defined in section 1(1) BGleiG, to which the DZHW is committed, are the implementation of equality between women and men, the elimination of existing gender-based disadvantages and the prevention of future disadvantages, in particular the disadvantage of women, as well as improvements in family-friendliness and the compatibility of family, care and work for employees.
