3. German-Sino Conference on Gender Equality and Development: Social Security and Gender Equality

The typical life course of women and men is still leading to inequality concerning social security. During the conference this problem has been examined from various aspects, the differences and commonalities of the development in China and Germany have been shared and solution approaches have been discussed.

In both countries women are still doing most of the unpaid care-work in families, which makes it difficult to pursue their careers. For this reason, they are more dependent on their partner, having disadvantages in social security and often struggle to enter into the labor market after a phase of care-work. In order to compensate the losses in social security of women doing unpaid care-work, to facilitate their re-entry into the job market and to promote gender equality in general family policy is an important instrument.

The 3^rd conference on social security and gender equality aimed to gain a better understanding of each countries development in family policy and their effect on gender equality. FES co-organized this conference, titled “3. German-Sino Conference on Gender Equality and Development: Social Security and Gender Equality”, in cooperation with the China Women´s University. From November 1 to November 4, participants including experts from the fields of sociology, gender studies, social policy and more contributed to a successful conference. Experts invited by FES were Prof. Dr. Ute Klammer and Dr. Barbara Stiegler.

The experts presented an overview about family policy and social services in Germany, covering social insurance, old age provision and the compatibility of care labour and profession. Fruitful debates lead to a broader understanding of the reasons for structural shortcomings in family policy concerning gender equality and aimed to identify possibilities for improvement. In addition to the conference, the experts answered the questions of China Women’s University’s students on family policy, gender equality and gender studies in general.