Women's Rights

Country: Germany

Committee: United Nations Commission of Women's Rights

Topic: Women's Rights

Conference: Bergen Academy Model UN Conference

School: Ramapo High School, NJ

I. The United Nations Commission on Women's Rights or UNCWR, main focus is to ensure that women are treated in an acceptable manner. The problem is that some countries see women as inferior to men. I would like to use Germany as an example to less fortunate countries by showing how the equality of men and women as bettered the community. It is our duty and responsibility to promote and protect the rights of women and their fundamental freedoms. Women are allowed to all human rights, even those that relate to economic development and resources. Not giving women equal accesses to resources and opportunities is a denial of rights, and this leads to the economic inequality and poverty of women. We recognize the fact that equal treatment on women and girls in their economic and social life is a requirement for the full realization of human rights.

According to the Basic Law of Germany "men and women enjoy equal rights". Few disadvantages still exist for women; however, efforts on the part of the state to dismantle disadvantages for women have met with some success, but the process entails further challenges.

Education in Germany for females has increased dramatically. They fill the majority at middle schools, 51% and 54% of grammar schools. In the 2002-3 academic year, the percentage of new female students (50.4 percent) was greater than that of males for the first time. For German women, employment is an important aspect of their lives.

The working force in Germany is consists nearly of fifty percent women. Many of them have the burden of working and caring for a family. In April, 2002, 64 percent of all women aged between 15 and 65 with children below the age of 18 living at home were in employment: 63 percent of women in former West Germany, 71 percent in the east German states. Cultural tradition exists in Germany with the belief that women are responsible for the family. Because of this belief they are challenged to work part-time and interrupt their employment to raise their children. Due to this matter, women rarely have the chance to be promoted in the workforce or work up for raises, unlike men.

If women are now allowed to serve in the German Armed Forces since 2001, and enjoy equal rights in that respect, it should be mandated that men and women split their time in the home raising a family, and jobs should freeze there status until they return.

Although in actual working life the maxim "equal pay for equal work" applies, it is still not entirely put into practice. The average salary of employed women is considerably less than that of men. In 2002, women in full-time employment in private industry earned on average $2,517 per month, or around 30 percent less than their male colleagues. Full-time female industrial workers earned an average $1,837 per month before tax, a good 26 percent less than their male colleagues.

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