Icon: enlarge
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU)
Photo:
TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
The Ministry of Justice has drafted a draft law entirely in female form - and is now causing displeasure among colleagues at the Ministry of the Interior.
The paper, written by Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD), contains formulations such as "liability of the debtor" and "managers".
Now employees from the Ministry of the Interior have appealed.
A spokesman in the Ministry of Justice confirmed the process to SPIEGEL on Monday: It was true that "often feminine terms, especially for legal entities" were chosen in the draft.
The "Bild" newspaper first reported on the process.
The draft bill under the title "Corporate Stabilization and Restructuring Act"
regulates bankruptcies and protection of creditors.
Justice Department writes generic feminine law for the first time
The use of female instead of male names had technical reasons, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of Justice.
Legal persons like GmbH are often female - and this is what matters most.
In general, the staff at the Ministry of Justice would make sure that equality between women and men is "also expressed in language".
The spokesman could not confirm whether this is the first time that the House will draft a law in female form.
The generic feminine uses the feminine term to include both female and male persons: If owners are written instead of owners, then owners are meant.
In the law it sounds like this: "In deviation from paragraph 2 number 2, it does not prevent the appropriate participation of a group of creditors if the debtor or a holder of shares or membership rights retains economic values."
Home Office urges the use of the masculine form
According to the "Bild" newspaper, the Interior Ministry of Horst Seehofer (CSU) states that the draft of the speakers must be "adapted to the applicable regulations": "While the generic masculine includes women, a generic feminine [...] Not recognized in the present context. The correctness of the language must be guaranteed, especially with legal texts, also with regard to the legal formality. "
How the dispute over gender-equitable language will end is uncertain: the legal and language test of the draftsman has not yet been completed, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice told SPIEGEL.
In this respect, "the draft will be revised before it is presented to the cabinet".
Nonetheless, a paragraph from the joint rules of procedure of the federal ministries states that all bills should "express the equality of women and men in language".
Icon: The mirror
mrc