Status: 06/28/2022 3:41 p.m
Women’s Day on March 8th will be a public holiday in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from next year. The state parliament decided that today. But how useful is that? Opinions differ.
The state parliament in Schwerin decided on Tuesday to amend the public holiday law with the votes of the governing coalition of SPD and Left Party as well as the Greens. This is intended to set an example for gender equality, it said in the justification for the application. Above all, the opposition factions of the CDU and FDP criticized the step because it was an untimely burden on the economy. They wanted to postpone the introduction to a later date. After Berlin, MV is the second federal state to make International Women’s Day a public holiday. From 2023 onwards, this should then be free of work.
Criticism from business
The Schwerin government coalition of SPD and Left had written the introduction of the new public holiday in autumn 2021 in their coalition agreement. The economy then criticized. However, Red-Red sees macroeconomic additional costs as justifiable and refers to the direction and importance of the new holiday. In addition, MV has so far had fewer public holidays than other federal states.
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Media scientist Prommer: Women’s Day makes sense
For media scientist Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Prommer from the University of Rostock, Women’s Day as a public holiday makes perfect sense to further promote equality between women and men. There is still a long way to go: “We still have a gender pay gap, we still have unequal representation of women compared to men in many positions,” says Prommer on NDR MV Live. If the day brings us to think again about what can be done concretely to get closer to real equality, it makes sense. This is different if the day is only seen as a counterpart to Father’s Day and women move around with handcarts.
According to Prommer, it would also send the wrong signal if it were to say: “Well, we’ve now managed to celebrate a public holiday and equal rights,” the media scientist continues. According to her, the day should be seen as a reminder, reminder or appreciation. At the same time, something would have to change structurally in other places for something to actually change.
Meeting marathon before summer break
The state parliament in MV has a session marathon ahead of it this week. Before MPs can go on summer break, 40 items on the agenda have to be worked through in four days. The focus of the June state parliament session is the final budget consultation.
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