Principles of Democracy (4): Equal rights of men and women - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1984 - 80 Pfennig

The stamp is intended to draw the public's attention to the equality enshrined in the Basic Law (Article 3) "Men and women are equal." It ends with the series "Basic Thoughts of Democracy", which began in 1981 with the three special stamps "Rechtsstaat", "Separation of Powers", "Volks sovereignty", the stamp block "Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany" issued in 1982 and the special stamp "Bund, Länder und Gemeinden in of the Federal Republic of Germany «from last year. Women have been fighting for equal rights since the mid-19th century. The active and passive right to vote (for the first time in the Weimar constitution) as well as better education and job opportunities were the most important achievements; the social goals, above all equal pay for equal work and equality in civil law, could not yet reach these women. In the National Socialist era, the work of women in the public, often in the profession, a temporary end was set. 35 years ago - on 23 May 1949 - the phrase "men and women are equal" was first included in a German constitution, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (GG). It took hard fighting and convincing arguments until many of the fathers of the Basic Law, who found this formulation unreasonable, accepted it (among the 70 members of the Parliamentary Council there were only 4 women). According to Article 3 para. 1 of the Basic Law, all people are equal before the law. Article 3 (2) of the Basic Law requires equal rights for men and women; Article 3 (3) prohibits discriminating or favoring someone because of their gender or certain other personal characteristics. Like all fundamental rights, the principle of equal rights binds legislation, executive power and jurisdiction as directly applicable law. The requirement of equal rights goes beyond the general equality requirement of Article 3 (1) Basic Law. The general principle of equality, which allows factually substantiated differentiations, is concretized to the effect that a differentiation by gender is not permitted. Differentiation according to gender is exceptionally possible only if incomparable biological characteristics of men and women conflict with legal equality: for example, when circumstances are taken into account that exclusively affect the members of the female sex, for example in maternity protection legislation. Whereas in the Weimar Constitution equality between men and women only referred to citizenship rights, Article 3 (2) of the Basic Law applies in all areas of law, and in particular in civil law. This has led to a number of significant changes in the law, in particular in marriage and family law, in name and citizenship law. (Text: Federal Ministry of the Interior, Bonn)