The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) is celebrating 75 years since its foundation, and the development towards a balanced gender distribution in the THW is still evolving. Until 1959, women were excluded from active service, and even after being authorised, they were initially only allowed to take on supporting tasks. Today, the proportion of women among the approximately 88,000 volunteers is around 17 percent, with current new recruits already making up 23.5 percent. The proportion of full-time THW employees is already at 42.7 percent. In order to further increase the gender balance, THW relies on networks such as the Women Volunteers’ Day as well as other exchange formats and organised the network meeting for female managers in 2024, for example. You can find the entire article here.
(Image source: ©THW)