Equal Care Day event in Frankfurt

On 28 February 2017, Frankfurt was the first city in Germany, if not Europe or even the world, to officially celebrate Equal Care Day with an evening event. Almut Schnerring and Sascha Verlan launched the idea in 2016 - a leap year - that 29 February should be declared Equal Care Day because men statistically need four years to do the amount of (mostly unpaid) care work that women manage in a year. However, in order to perhaps initiate a change in awareness a little more quickly, it was decided to celebrate the day every year, but on non-leap years on 28 February or 1 March instead. To the great delight of our Care Revolution Rhine-Main regional network, we were involved in the design of the programme. We introduced the topic with a short sketch, which was then elaborated on by Prof Dr Uta Maier Graewe. Care work is largely carried out by women and enjoys very little recognition. If it is organised as gainful employment, it is poorly paid because it is considered "unproductive". Because in our capitalist economic system, productivity is equated with profitability, so the "production" of people - getting pregnant with them, giving birth to them, bringing them up and pulling more than one all-nighter in the process, giving up a significant part of your own income in their favour, perhaps also career opportunities and pension entitlements, who are then available to the economy as workers and, even more importantly, consumers - is worth next to nothing! The presentation was followed by a lively discussion with the participants, which centred around the fact that the unequal distribution of care work puts women at a great disadvantage in terms of their opportunities to participate in the labour market. And that this participation in the labour market is a prerequisite for financial independence and security in old age. Why not break out of this corset of thinking and consider work and securing a livelihood as two independent variables? After all, we have seen that a very large proportion of necessary work is unpaid, i.e. by no means "for the sake of money". At the same time, there are people who have more and more money even though they don't work. "Their money does it for them". The introduction of an unconditional basic income could change a lot of things. People would have existential security and would work because they see work as necessary or desirable, not to earn a living. Many young men would be happy to contribute to the family if it were (financially) possible for them. Some participants expressed their frustration that the issue of the unequal distribution of unpaid work has been on the feminist agenda for decades, but still no progress has been made. How can the necessary cultural change finally take place? Are mothers to blame because they are not bringing up their sons properly? Certainly not, because education is not just a matter for mothers, but for society as a whole, with its stereotypes and norms. Everyone, especially creative artists, the media and advertising, must work on changing gender perceptions. And changes have already taken place. Many women, for example, consciously refuse to become mothers and thus reject a certain role stereotype. What could a fight for change in the care sector look like? If, for example, a strike in a hospital or in the family is not a conflict situation between the two poles of employer and employee, but places three people in a field of tension: the carer (a nurse), the person being cared for (the patient) and the employer (the hospital provider). How is a mother supposed to leave her toddler unattended for a few hours in order to exert pressure, for example, to build more daycare centres or improve the quality of daycare centres? It was pointed out that a feminist network has formed in Germany in connection with the growing international women's movement, which is also calling for a global women's strike in Germany on 8 March. In France, for example, because women are paid 21% less than men, there are calls for them to stop work on 8 March at 15:30 to take to the streets and demonstrate for their rights. Yes, we will also be taking part here in Frankfurt. On 8 March we will be demonstrating for care sharing at 4pm at the statue of David at the Hauptwache. We invite all women and men who are also in favour of a good life for all: TOGETHER WE FAIR-CARE THE CONDITIONS!