Policy recommendations from school pupils in Hamburg to Senator Jana Schiedek

On 4 December 2012, a delegation of school pupils from Hamburg presented their own policy recommendation on the issue of gender equality in leadership positions to Hamburg’s Senator for Justice and Equality. Jana Schiedek had recently successfully tabled a draft bill on the same issue in the Bundestag.

Four Year 11 and Year 12 classes from different districts of Hamburg each spent a week engaged in an intensive and controversial debate as part of our ‘diskurslernen’ pupil project, focusing on the key question: ‘A statutory quota for women in large companies – what is your recommendation for Germany?’ At the student conference on 22 November 2012 – coinciding with a vote on the issue in the Bundestag – 25 student representatives from the individual classes reached a consensus after lengthy debate and deliberation, which they set out in a key points paper.