As of: February 16, 2024, 8:44 p.m
By: Hannes Niemeyer
Comments
Press
Split
Austria is taking action against gender.
It is now prohibited in the Federal Chancellery, as Minister for Women Raab announced.
It remains unclear what will happen if the regulation is violated.
Vienna – “We will ban gendering,” announced Prime Minister Markus Söder last year for schools in his state of Bavaria.
This should also happen in authorities.
A measure in which the neighboring country Austria is already somewhat further along.
The Lower Austria region pushed through the gender ban in authorities last year thanks to the drive of the FPÖ - and at the same time increased the pressure on the ÖVP-led Chancellery.
In Vienna they have now followed suit.
The authority led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer has now announced that it will reform the “communication guidelines for gender-appropriate language in official correspondence and external appearance”.
The ÖVP's push in such a direction is not entirely new.
As early as January 2024, Nehammer publicly spoke out in favor of following the example of Lower Austria and - as it was said at the time - also the model from Bavaria, and implementing a kind of gender ban in administration.
Now the next step took place.
Gender ban in the Austrian Federal Chancellery – Minister for Women explains reform
The reform now means that the “Federal Chancellery is abolishing the use of stars, colons or the internal I in internal and external appearances,” it said in a statement.
And that came from Susanne Raab, of all people, who works in Nehammer's cabinet as Federal Minister for Women and Integration.
The statement, from which various Austrian media quoted, also said that it was “a given” that women and men were taken into account not only in correspondence, but also in external appearances.
Recently, this should not happen through gender asterisks, colons or the internal I, but rather “through the use of the male and female forms or through neutral formulations”.
In plain language this means: “Citizens” do not become “citizens”, “citizens” or “citizens”, but rather “citizens”.
No more gender stars in the Federal Chancellery: the reform was announced by Women's Minister Susanne Raab.
© dpa |
Sebastian Gollnow + IMAGO / SEPA.Media / Martin Juen (montage)
Women's Minister Raab announces gender end - she refuses to answer a question
Women's Minister Raab emphasizes in the broadcast that equality between women and men is "an absolute necessity" for her - both in life and in language.
In addition, the German Spelling Council would also recommend the spelling now specified.
They now want to “follow this in the administration, as already outlined in Chancellor Nehammer’s Austria plan”.
The employees have already been informed.
However, when asked about a question about the gender debate - which recently caused heated discussions on the ORF - the office of the Minister for Women's Affairs apparently strictly refuses to answer, as the oe24.de portal reports: Whether there would be any penalties if one does not comply with the new one Hold regulation.
In Lower Austria, warnings or disciplinary sanctions are possible if violations occur.
According to oe24, Raab simply said that initially everyone had adhered to the specified regulations and that they were working with the four-eyes principle.