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Actually, the rules are clear: According to the law, everyone has the right to equal access to career opportunities in particular and life opportunities in general.

Age, gender, disability or origin should therefore not pre-determine our professional career.

But the reality in 2021 is often different.

"Germany is still a developing country when it comes to gender equality," says Caprice Oona Weissenrieder, consultant for personnel and organizational development at TU Darmstadt.

Women in management positions, for example, are still rare.

According to the Allbright Foundation, which advocates more women and diversity in management positions in business, their share on the board of directors of the DAX companies even fell to 12.8 percent last year.

In the management ranks of family businesses, it is 6.9 percent.

Despite the great hype about teams and management teams that are as diverse as possible, there is often little movement.

And with many employers who present themselves to the outside world as open and modern, things are seething beneath the surface.

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When people call Friederike Boll, they have usually already gone through a long path of suffering.

The Frankfurt lawyer represents employees whose employers violate the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

Instead of immediately fighting hard, in most cases Boll first tries to gain insight from the discriminating party.

"Sometimes people can be moved to rethink," says the labor lawyer.

If she quotes from the law and appeals to the moral responsibility of superiors and teams, at best no further legal action is required.

The problem: Often the belittling of women, colleagues with a migration background or people with disabilities comes in the form of supposed jokes.

One team member starts with it, the others internalize or cover the tone.

In conversations with management, those affected sometimes fall on deaf ears: “Structural inequality of treatment?

We don't have anything like that.

At most a single case, not dramatic. "

More about careers

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So what should you do if your own career opportunities are curtailed due to devaluations that have nothing to do with qualifications or competence?

As a first step, those affected should submit a complaint to the staff or works council, advises Boll.

If there is no such thing, the internal complaints office for AGG violations or the management level is the addressee.

“Employers are responsible for following up the social mechanisms underlying discrimination.” Employers can react to discriminatory behavior with various measures - from warning to dismissal.

But there is not always bad will behind a lack of professional equality in a company.

According to neuroscientific findings, we make almost 90 percent of our decisions largely unconsciously.

Automatisms and prejudices guide us - and so we often discriminate without wanting to.

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So-called unconscious bias training is advisable to change precisely these blind spots.

Managers are sensitized to become aware of their own prejudices and to make more fair decisions.

"If it was mainly men who applied for a position, those responsible should check the advertisement: Does it contain certain formulations that tend not to appeal to women?" Advises expert Weissenrieder.

Even male executives who explicitly advocate more diversity fall into this trap.

According to the principle of similarity, we prefer to recruit or promote those who feel closest to us.

This is shown, among other things, by studies by business psychologist Uwe Peter Kanning.

More diversity is hardly to be expected.

In order to avoid this pitfall, managers should check in every process step whether, beyond the question of competence, everyone actually has the same opportunities.

Everything about salary

What many are not aware of: Legally, if there is a well-founded suspicion of unequal treatment, for example because of gender, it is easier to provide evidence. This means that if an applicant knows that she was the only woman besides nine male candidates for the job in the second selection round, she can sometimes claim that this is an indication of discrimination. In the case of a severe disability, a non-invitation to an interview with sufficient formal qualifications is sufficient to tackle discrimination.

There is also room for maneuver when it comes to money. The Pay Transparency Act, which came into force in 2017, is intended to support the principle of "equal pay for work of equal value". Boll sees this only as a gradual improvement. Furthermore, it is widespread in Germany to maintain silence about salaries. If an employee gets the feeling that she is getting less than her male colleagues at the same level, she will continue to have great problems of proof without works council statistics.

In addition, there is the socialization effect that women are still much less likely to demand salary negotiations than men.

In general, according to Weissenrieder, female executives in particular still too often fall into the "likeability" trap: always smile and be friendly in order to be liked by everyone as possible.

The fear of being called loud and bossy, as "man-woman" is too great.

Instead of adopting male-dominated rules of the game of power, it is all the more important to remain authentic.

“For a long time, the requirements for good management were mainly associated with typically male characteristics,” says Weissenrieder.

That is slowly changing: "Communication, empathy, cooperation - in contemporary leadership theories, these strengths, which are more feminine, now have more space."

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This reveals the dilemma in which women still find themselves: If they behave in accordance with their roles - that is, compassionate, friendly and warm-hearted - they will not be awarded certain leadership qualities and competencies. If they adapt behaviors that are considered male, they are classified as unsympathetic.

However, it seems that diversity management is a must-have in modern companies.

Lawyer Boll welcomes the fact that more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon: “The advantage of such a position or department is that it does not consider discrimination based on gender, origin or sexuality in isolation, because they often appear together.” However, advises they only use it as a supplementary measure: "Diversity management does not replace a works council - because it lives from pressure from the grassroots and legal powers instead of the grace of the management."

More equality among young employees

Meanwhile, hope rests on future generations: young fathers who naturally want to take parental leave and sometimes prefer part-time work to their careers, as well as the at least slowly increasing number of female start-up founders.

“There is a shift in the direction of equality among young employees,” observes Weissenrieder.

And yet it takes patience.

What accelerates changes are role models who openly report on careers and stumbling blocks, says the HR expert.

This can be done, for example, via industry or company-internal networks.

Instead of pure women's networks, Weissenrieder recommends a cross-gender exchange about the challenges across different levels.

Not a purely women's issue

This is also what the Allbright Foundation is promoting. She calls on men to open networks for women and to actively invite them. They should also discuss the relevance of equal opportunities among themselves - especially in order to reach those who dismiss diversity as a purely women's issue. Women should, however, say yes to more responsibility instead of doubting their own skills or approaching new tasks in a perfectionist manner.

The most important thing, however, remains to defend oneself against injustices in the company and to stand up for one's own rights. There is a point when the rip cord has to be pulled. Lawyer Boll also advises: "If symptoms of illness appear as a result of long-term discrimination and there is no cultural change despite all the measures, the company should also be held legally accountable."