Interview with Gaby Beckmann about the tasks and prospects of her work
Rheine. Since March 1, Gaby Beckmann has been the new Equal Opportunities Officer for the city of Rheine. In this interview, she introduces herself, reports on her experiences in the first few months and tells us about her future plans:
My name is Gaby Beckmann and I am the new Equal Opportunities Officer of the city of Rheine since 01.03.2022. I myself was born here in Rheine, went to school and also did my training with the city of Rheine. Since then, I have worked and lived in Rheine, so I guess I am considered a “true Rhinelander”.
Please tell us briefly how things went for you after your training within the Rheine municipal administration.
I have spent my career so far in what is now the Department of Schools, Social Affairs, Migration and Integration and in the Youth Welfare Office. For the last 15 years, I have been working as a controller with a focus on “personnel”. During this time, I was asked by the former Equal Opportunities Officer of the City of Rheine, Monika Hoelzel, if I would be willing to take over as her deputy. This I gladly did, so that I could already gain an insight into the activities during the past 4 years.
What appeals to you about this task?
Definitely the diversity. Equality work is a broad field and touches on many different areas of life. I can think of topics such as career guidance for girls, political participation, diversity, or issues like violence against women or the difference in pay between women and men.
In the last few months, I have had many contacts with a wide variety of people and institutions, and I think that together we can make a lot of things happen. The first projects are already being planned, but some things need a longer lead time.
What does your daily work look like in concrete terms?
As an Equal Opportunity Officer, I perform many different tasks within the administration. I am involved almost everywhere where personnel decisions have to be made. For example, I take part in many job interviews. Fortunately, I have a deputy who actively supports me here.
In addition, I would also like to push public relations work again after more than two years of the pandemic. Of course, this requires a longer period of preparation, but the first things are in the starting blocks.
For example, we – i.e. the equal opportunity officers in the Steinfurt district – will be holding a series of events on the subject of “Career and finances for women”. Currently, four events are planned, which will deal with topics such as “Opportunities and risks of a mini-job”, “Women and finances” or even the “Negotiation of the first employment contract or salary”. We plan to expand this series of events in the coming year.
One project that I have been working on a lot, especially in the last few days, is the campaign “Luisa is here!”, which was developed before the pandemic in cooperation with the Women’s Counseling Center. “Luisa is here!” is part of the prevention campaign “Celebrate Safely” and offers direct help in cases of sexual harassment of women and girls. Here we will again approach the local catering industry to raise awareness and provide training on this topic. It’s summer now and people are in the mood to party, so the timing is right.
So what are the important issues for you to address in the near future?
Honestly, there are many issues to work on. I think one important issue is to break down the typical boy and girl roles that already exist in childhood. For example, when children in kindergarten are asked to draw a person flying an airplane, almost only pilots are drawn. Female pilots, on the other hand, are rarely if ever drawn. If we don’t break down these outdated role models, we allow career and family planning to be influenced – often negatively. In this context, I could therefore imagine working with schools or kindergartens in Rheine to address this issue.
Another concern of mine is also to provide women with advice on how to shape their life plans. As we all know, different life plans are reflected at the latest in pension entitlements. In order to counteract poverty in old age here, it would be sensible and desirable for couples to think carefully about their professional future before and during the family phase. In this context, the above-mentioned series of events “Women and Career” fits in quite well.
The topic of “Reconciling family and career,” for example with the aspect of “leading part-time,” is also important to me. Because both women and men can benefit from this. Particularly against the backdrop of the shortage of skilled workers and demographic change, companies, like us as a city administration, must make use of the potential of well-trained employees and also try to retain them in the long term. Clever concepts for the performance of management tasks on a part-time basis can be a building block here.