Glossary: 68 terms on diversity and sexism at work
Each definition stands on its own and names its source. The German term is shown in brackets, because the sources and the legal context are German. Updated: 13 November 2026.
3R method Affirmative action Ageism Allyship Assimilation Benevolent sexism Bias blind spot Bystander Categorization Cisgender / transgender Cognitive bias Coming out / outing Compensation claim and deadline Complaints office Confirmation bias Correspondence test Culturalization Difference-blind approach (color blindness) Difference-conscious approach (multiculturalism) Direct discrimination Discrimination Diversity Diversity competence Diversity controlling Diversity Management Employee Resource Group (ERG) Employer's duty of care Equity Ethnocentrism Exclusion Four Layers of Diversity Gender care gap Gender expression Gender identity Gender mainstreaming Gender pay gap Gender-based violence General Equal Treatment Act Glass ceiling Heteronormativity Hostile sexism Inclusion Indirect discrimination Ingroup bias Integration Intersectionality Intersex LGBTQIA+ Microaggression Non-binary Pay transparency Prejudice Privilege Protected characteristics Pygmalion effect Quota Resistance to change Sex / gender Sexism Sexual harassment Sexual orientation Shifted burden of proof Stereotype Structural discrimination Subtle discrimination System 1 / System 2 Unintentional discrimination, unconscious bias Victim blaming
Basics
- Assimilation (Assimilation)
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The adaptation of immigrants to the resident population, in which the characteristics of their origin are gradually shed, often over several generations. The word literally means alignment or adjustment. Unlike with inclusion, the step of adjusting lies with the immigrants here, not with the existing structures.
- Difference-blind approach (color blindness) (Differenzblinder Ansatz)
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An approach of deliberately disregarding group membership in order to achieve equality. According to a review of psychological research (2018), it can reduce sensitivity to racism and discrimination and tends to harm relations between groups and outcomes for minorities, with exceptions.
- Difference-conscious approach (multiculturalism) (Differenzbewusster Ansatz)
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An approach of explicitly acknowledging and valuing group differences and backgrounds. The same review (2018) found more often favourable effects for it, especially for people affected by racism, although the effect depends on the setting. According to the review, both approaches can support inequality.
- Diversity (Diversität (Vielfalt))
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The variety of ways in which people differ, for example by gender, age, disability, ethnic origin, religion or belief, and sexual identity. In the diversity approach, this variety is regarded as a potential of society that is to be valued and deliberately promoted. The dimensions are based on the German General Equal Treatment Act (AGG); the Berlin state anti-discrimination act (Landesantidiskriminierungsgesetz) names further ones.
- Equity (Chancengerechtigkeit)
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A fair distribution of benefits and obligations, which, depending on the situation, can mean equal or different but equivalent treatment. This is how the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) describes gender equity in the relationship between women and men. It cautions that the term should be used carefully because it can entrench role stereotypes.
- Exclusion (Exklusion)
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Exclusion in which people are denied access to a service, directly or indirectly. In 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities used the term for learners who are kept from access to education, openly or through less visible barriers. The Committee distinguishes it from separate institutions (segregation), integration and inclusion.
- Four Layers of Diversity (Vier Schichten der Vielfalt)
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A model by Gardenswartz and Rowe that arranges diversity in layers. At the centre is personality. Around it lie internal dimensions such as age, gender, ethnicity, physical abilities and sexual orientation, then external ones such as education, religion, income or marital status, and finally organisational ones such as seniority, department or functional level. They took the internal and external dimensions from Loden and Rosener (1991).
- Inclusion (Inklusion)
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A process of systemic reform that changes content, methods, structures and strategies so that all people can take part on an equal footing. This is how the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities describes inclusion in education (2016). According to the Committee, merely placing people in existing institutions without changing those institutions does not count as inclusion.
- Integration (Integration)
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The incorporation of people into existing institutions that do not change in the process. Anyone who wants to take part must be able to meet the institutions' standardised requirements. This reading comes from the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2016, in the context of education); according to it, integration does not lead to inclusion by itself. In everyday use, the word is not used consistently.
- Intersectionality (Intersektionalität)
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The overlap of several forms of discrimination in one person, for example racism and sexism, which is more than the sum of its parts. The term is traced back to Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), who criticised US anti-discrimination law for looking at discrimination along a single category, thereby making the experiences of Black women invisible.
- Privilege (Privileg)
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Undeserved, often invisible advantages that come from belonging to a group. In 1988 Peggy McIntosh described them, using white people and men as examples, as an invisible package of unearned assets that one can use every day without noticing. Privileges arise from structures and take effect even when the person rejects them.
Perception and prejudice
- Ageism (Altersdiskriminierung)
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Worse treatment of a person because of their age, whether they are regarded as too old or too young, for example in a job application process. Age is among the grounds that § 1 AGG expressly names. Whether an impermissible disadvantage exists in a given case depends on the circumstances. This glossary is not a substitute for legal advice.
- Bias blind spot (Blinder Fleck (Bias Blind Spot))
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The tendency to recognise biases in judgement more clearly in others than in oneself. In surveys by Pronin, Lin and Ross (2002), participants considered themselves less susceptible than average and stuck to this even after it had been explained to them how the bias works. Knowing about biases therefore does not automatically protect against them.
- Categorization (Kategorisierung)
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Sorting impressions into existing categories. This saves effort because not every impression has to be assessed anew. In 1922 Walter Lippmann described that people often first perceive what their culture has already defined for them. Such shortcuts are usually serviceable but can lead to systematic misjudgements.
- Cognitive bias (Kognitive Verzerrung)
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A systematic deviation in judgement under uncertainty. In 1974 Tversky and Kahneman showed that people then rely on rules of thumb (heuristics), such as representativeness, availability or anchoring. These rules are usually useful but lead to severe and systematic errors.
- Confirmation bias (Bestätigungsfehler)
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The tendency to seek or interpret evidence in a way that supports existing beliefs. Nickerson (1998) groups several related phenomena under the term, so it is an umbrella term and not a single effect. Anyone pursuing an assumption tends to weigh evidence for it more favourably than evidence against it.
- Correspondence test (Korrespondenztest)
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A method in discrimination research: researchers send employers fictitious applications with equal qualifications that differ only in one characteristic, such as the name, and compare the responses. In 2014 the research unit of the German Expert Council on Integration and Migration used the method for the apprenticeship market. The test shows differences in response behaviour, not the employers' motives.
- Culturalization (Kulturalisierung)
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Explaining behaviour or problems wholesale by a supposed culture instead of looking at the person, the situation and social conditions. Iman Attia describes culturalisation, in the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2014), as a present-day form of racialisation in which cultural rather than biological characteristics are emphasised. A counterweight is to look at the individual person.
- Discrimination (Diskriminierung)
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Worse treatment of a person because of group membership or a characteristic. Under German law, the AGG covers disadvantages on the grounds named in § 1 ('race' in the wording of the law, ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual identity). A merely assumed membership is also sufficient (§ 7 (1)). Not every unequal treatment is legally a disadvantage.
- Ethnocentrism (Ethnozentrismus)
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The attitude of making one's own group, with its rules and ideas, the yardstick for judging all others. The Lexikon der Psychologie (in German) additionally describes a general hostility towards other groups, nations or peoples. It is a pattern of thinking and evaluation, not the property of a particular culture.
- Ingroup bias (Eigengruppen-Verzerrung)
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Relative favouring of one's own group without other groups being favoured to the same degree. In 1999 Marilynn Brewer described that this is first of all about goodwill towards the ingroup, not necessarily about aversion to other groups.
- Prejudice (Vorurteil)
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An aversion based on a faulty and rigid generalisation, according to the classic definition by Gordon Allport (1954). Sibley and Barlow (2016) consider it incomplete because it covers only open hostility. A prejudice can be directed at a group as a whole or at individual members of it.
- Pygmalion effect (Pygmalion-Effekt)
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An effect in which other people's expectations are reflected in performance: mistaken expectations can lead people to perform accordingly. The name goes back to the study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968). An overview by Jussim and Harber (2005) holds the effects to be typically small; larger ones occur mainly under particular conditions, for example with stigmatised groups.
- Stereotype (Stereotyp)
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A simplified picture of a group, shaped by the surroundings, that is applied to individual people. The term goes back to Walter Lippmann (1922), who used it for the mental pictures with which people order a world that is too large and too fast for direct experience.
- Structural discrimination (Strukturelle Diskriminierung)
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Established inequalities that arise and persist through social conditions such as legal conceptions, political structures and economic circumstances. The Fifth Joint Report (Bundestag printed paper 20/12800, 2024) distinguishes from it institutional discrimination: disadvantage through the routines, rules and norms of individual organisations. The AGG covers both levels only in part, namely through indirect disadvantage.
- Subtle discrimination (Subtile Diskriminierung)
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Inconspicuous, interpersonal forms of disadvantage that are often seen as normal and overlooked. A meta-analysis by Jones and colleagues (2016) found that subtle and overt discrimination are associated about equally strongly with adverse outcomes. The widespread assumption that subtle forms weigh less is not supported by the study.
- System 1 / System 2 (System 1 und System 2)
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Two modes of thinking according to Daniel Kahneman. System 1 works fast, automatically and effortlessly and is based on associations. System 2 works more slowly, consciously and with effort. Kahneman (2003) describes that System 2 usually monitors the judgements of System 1 only loosely, especially under additional load.
- Unintentional discrimination, unconscious bias (Unbeabsichtigte Diskriminierung)
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Disadvantage without any intent to disadvantage, for example because unconscious attributions steer a judgement. Under German law, § 3 (1) and (2) AGG names no intent as a requirement. In psychological terms, Greenwald and Banaji (1995) describe implicit stereotypes as traces of past experience that influence judgements without conscious control.
Law
- Affirmative action (Positive Maßnahmen)
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Differential treatment that the AGG permits where suitable and appropriate measures are meant to prevent or compensate for existing disadvantages on one of the grounds named in § 1 AGG (§ 5 AGG). By its wording, the provision allows such measures; it says nothing of an obligation, a time limit or a quota. As of 13 November 2026; not legal advice.
- Compensation claim and deadline (Entschädigungsanspruch und Frist)
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Those affected can claim damages and reasonable monetary compensation for non-material harm if the prohibition of disadvantage is breached (§ 15 (1) and (2) AGG). The claim must be asserted within two months unless a collective agreement provides otherwise; for job applications the period starts when the rejection is received. An extension is so far only planned. Not legal advice.
- Complaints office (Beschwerdestelle)
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The competent body within the company to which employees can complain under § 13 (1) AGG if they feel disadvantaged in connection with their employment. The complaint must be examined, and the result must be communicated to the person who complained. The right to complain applies to disadvantage as well as to harassment and sexual harassment.
- Direct discrimination (Unmittelbare Diskriminierung (unmittelbare Benachteiligung))
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Under German law, a person is treated less favourably than another person in a comparable situation on a ground named in § 1 AGG. This applies to treatment that the person experiences, has experienced or would experience (§ 3 (1) AGG). As of 13 November 2026; not legal advice.
- Employer's duty of care (Schutz- und Präventionspflicht des Arbeitgebers)
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The employer's duty to take the necessary measures to protect against disadvantage, including preventively (§ 12 (1) AGG). This includes pointing out that disadvantage is impermissible and training employees. If employees breach the prohibition, the employer must respond appropriately, for example with a warning, reassignment, transfer or dismissal (§ 12 (3)).
- General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG))
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German statute of 14 August 2006 intended to prevent or eliminate disadvantages on the grounds named in § 1. Among other things, it regulates employers' duties (§§ 12, 13) and the claims of those affected (§ 15). As of 13 November 2026, a reform exists only as a draft bill (printed paper 21/6178); the version in force is the one last amended in December 2023.
- Indirect discrimination (Mittelbare Diskriminierung (mittelbare Benachteiligung))
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Apparently neutral provisions, criteria or procedures may put persons at a particular disadvantage on a ground named in § 1 AGG. That is an indirect disadvantage under § 3 (2) AGG, unless they are objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means are appropriate and necessary. As of 13 November 2026; not legal advice.
- Pay transparency (Entgelttransparenz)
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Disclosure of pay structures so that unequal pay becomes visible. EU Directive 2023/970 of 10 May 2023 provides that applicants learn the starting pay or its range and that employees can request information on their pay and on average figures broken down by sex. Germany missed the deadline of 7 June 2026; an implementing act is lacking (as of 13 November 2026).
- Protected characteristics (Schutzmerkmale)
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The grounds on which the AGG seeks to prevent or eliminate disadvantages: 'race' (the wording of the law), ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual identity (§ 1 AGG). The text of the law speaks of grounds, not of protected characteristics. Not every unequal treatment is therefore legally a disadvantage within the meaning of the law.
- Quota (Quote)
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A mandatory minimum share. In Germany, a fixed gender quota of at least 30 per cent on the supervisory board has applied since 2016 to listed companies with parity co-determination. For management boards there is no fixed quota, but target figures and, for boards with more than three members, a minimum participation requirement of at least one woman. As of 13 November 2026; not legal advice.
- Shifted burden of proof (Beweislasterleichterung)
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A procedural rule in disputes: if one party proves indications that suggest a disadvantage, the other party must prove that there was no breach of the protection against disadvantage (§ 22 AGG). The rule relieves those affected because they only have to prove indications, not the disadvantage itself. It is not a substitute for advice in an individual case.
Sexism and harassment
- Benevolent sexism (Benevolenter Sexismus)
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An attitude that, from the speaker's point of view, treats women in a friendly or protective way but confines them to traditional roles and presents them as weak or in need of protection. Glick and Fiske described it in 1996 as the counterpart to openly hostile sexism; in their model, both components are positively correlated. Good intentions alone do not decide whether something acts as sexism.
- Bystander (Bystander (Umstehende))
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People who observe an incident and can intervene, get help or look away. In 1968 Darley and Latané described that individuals help less often and later the more other people they assume to be present, because the felt responsibility is spread out (diffusion of responsibility). The experiment concerned emergencies; applying it to harassment in the office is a plausible assumption but not proven.
- Gender-based violence (Geschlechtsspezifische Gewalt)
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Violence directed against a woman because she is a woman, or that affects women disproportionately (Art. 3(d) of the Council of Europe's Istanbul Convention of 2011). It covers physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm as well as threats, in public as in private life.
- Hostile sexism (Hostiler Sexismus)
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An openly hostile attitude towards women, which Glick and Fiske described in 1996 as one of two components of ambivalent sexism. It stands opposite seemingly benevolent sexism, but in their studies both components are positively correlated. Open denigration and supposed care therefore do not exclude each other but occur in the same patterns of attitude.
- Microaggression (Mikroaggression)
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A brief, everyday remark, gesture or situation that devalues or excludes people because of a characteristic, often without ill intent. The term comes from racism research; Sue and colleagues (2007) considered similar effects possible for other characteristics such as gender. It is not a legal term; the AGG does not use it.
- Sexism (Sexismus)
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Any act, statement or practice based on the idea that a person or group is worth less because of gender. According to Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)1, intent or effect is enough, for example when dignity is violated, a hostile environment is created or a gender stereotype is reinforced. Legally, sexism is not the same as a disadvantage under the AGG.
- Sexual harassment (Sexuelle Belästigung)
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Unwelcome, sexually determined conduct that is intended to violate, or actually violates, a person's dignity. Under § 3 (4) AGG it is a disadvantage in relation to working life (§ 2 (1) nos. 1 to 4). What matters are unwelcomeness and effect, not the intention of the person acting.
- Victim blaming (Täter-Opfer-Umkehr)
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Shifting responsibility for wrong suffered onto the person affected, which relieves the person who acted. Typical are questions about clothing, behaviour or a delayed reaction. In English this is called victim blaming. Under the AGG the breach lies in the harassing conduct, not in the reaction of the person affected.
Gender and diversity
- Cisgender / transgender (Cisgender und transgender)
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Two opposing terms relating to gender identity: someone who feels they belong to the gender assigned at birth is cisgender; trans* people do not, or not only, identify with it. 'Trans*' serves as an umbrella term for various self-descriptions. Both concern gender identity, not sexual orientation, and are to be distinguished from intersex.
- Coming out / outing (Coming-out und Outing)
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Disclosure of one's own sexual orientation or gender identity (coming out): self-determined, usually an ongoing process, with an inner and an outer form. Revealing these characteristics of another person without being asked is called outing and is regarded as overstepping a boundary. The two are clearly to be distinguished, because only coming out is in the person's own hands.
- Gender expression (Geschlechtsausdruck)
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The way people present their gender identity outwardly, for example through clothing, hairstyle, demeanour or body language. It can match gender identity but does not have to. Neither a person's gender identity nor their sexual orientation can therefore be inferred from how they express their gender.
- Gender identity (Geschlechtsidentität)
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A person's inner knowledge and sense of their own gender. It does not have to match the gender assigned at birth and is not visible from outside. Others therefore cannot read it from appearance or behaviour alone; what matters is how the person describes themselves.
- Heteronormativity (Heteronormativität)
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An organising principle of society that takes biological sex, social gender and desire for the respective other gender for granted. Deviations from this are thereby devalued socially. In the workplace this shows, for example, in the unspoken assumption that all colleagues are heterosexual.
- Intersex (Intergeschlechtlich (inter*))
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People born with innate physical sex characteristics that, by medical norms, cannot be clearly classed as male or female. Their gender identities vary widely. Being intersex is not to be confused with being transgender: it concerns physical characteristics, whereas trans* concerns gender identity, that is, how a person understands themselves.
- LGBTQIA+ (LGBTQIA+ (deutsch: LSBTIQ*))
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Umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer people, in part extended to asexual, pansexual and non-binary people. German authorities also commonly use the form LSBTIQ*; the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs uses it in its glossary (as of 20 January 2026). There is no uniformly fixed abbreviation. The asterisk or plus sign stands for further self-descriptions.
- Non-binary (Nichtbinär)
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Description of people who understand themselves as neither exclusively male nor exclusively female, but as outside or between these categories. The term also serves as an umbrella for identities such as agender, genderqueer or genderfluid. It denotes a gender identity and says nothing in itself about sexual orientation.
- Sex / gender (Sex und Gender)
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Two terms for gender in the broad sense: sex means the gender assigned at birth on the basis of physical characteristics, gender the social or lived gender, which also includes role, appearance and demeanour. The glossary of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs describes gender as an important organising principle of society. Neither is the same as gender identity or sexual orientation.
- Sexual orientation (Sexuelle Orientierung)
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The direction of sexual and romantic desire, that is, with people of which gender someone wants to form a relationship, for example heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual or bisexual. It is to be distinguished from gender identity. In § 1 the AGG speaks of 'sexual identity' and does not use the term sexual orientation.
Organisation and leadership
- 3R method (3-R-Methode)
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A checking framework for equality work with three questions. Representation counts how many women and men are represented at which level. Resources asks how money, space and time are distributed. Reality (Realia) asks why the distribution looks the way it does and which norms lie behind it. It was developed by Gertrud Åström and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities.
- Allyship (Verbündetenschaft)
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The commitment of people from advantaged groups to social change for the benefit of disadvantaged groups. Research calls them allies. According to a review from 2016, this works better when allies state their support clearly, reflect on their own privileges and respect the self-determination of those affected.
- Diversity competence (Diversity-Kompetenz)
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The ability to meet social diversity with recognition and appreciation, free of prejudice. The Berlin Senate Administration for Anti-Discrimination describes it as an important key qualification for dealing with differences between people and counts attitude, knowledge and flexibility as part of it.
- Diversity controlling (Diversity-Controlling)
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A check on whether diversity and gender ratios in an organisation are adequately taken into account relative to the targets set. Decision-making processes can thus be measured against these targets. A precondition is that targets were set beforehand. This is how an equality and diversity unit at the University of Heidelberg describes it.
- Diversity Management (Diversitätsmanagement)
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An approach taken by organisations to promote differences between employees, for example in age, gender, nationality or disability, and to use them deliberately for business success. This is how the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) describes it. According to the available studies, it is not clearly established whether diversity actually increases economic success.
- Employee Resource Group (ERG) (Mitarbeitendennetzwerk)
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A group within an organisation that is carried by employees who take part voluntarily. In English, such groups are called Employee Resource Groups (ERG). A review by the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California from 2015 describes how they have emerged since the 1960s and have changed since then.
- Gender care gap (Gender Care Gap)
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The difference in the time women and men spend on unpaid work, expressed as a percentage of the men's time. According to Destatis, women in Germany did 43.4 per cent more unpaid work than men in 2022; in the 2012/2013 survey it was 52.4 per cent (retrieved 13 November 2026). Unpaid work includes, for example, housework, childcare and caregiving.
- Gender mainstreaming (Gender Mainstreaming)
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The systematic consideration of differences between women and men when planning measures. Planned action is checked for how it affects women and men, so that both benefit equally and inequality is not entrenched. This is how the glossary of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE, terms as of 2016) describes it.
- Gender pay gap (Gender Pay Gap (unbereinigt und bereinigt))
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The gap between the average gross hourly earnings of women and men. According to Destatis, the unadjusted figure in Germany in 2025 was 16 per cent. The adjusted figure, which factors out part-time work, sector, occupation and level of requirements, was 6 per cent (retrieved 13 November 2026). Destatis calls it an upper limit for possible pay discrimination because information, for example on career breaks, is missing.
- Glass ceiling (Gläserne Decke)
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An invisible barrier on the way to the top of an organisation. The term became widely known in 1986 through an article in the Wall Street Journal and referred to women. In 1995 the US Glass Ceiling Commission examined artificial barriers to the advancement of women and members of minorities.
- Resistance to change (Veränderungswiderstand)
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Negative reactions of employees to organisational change. Research does not see it as a uniform attitude but as multidimensional: in a study of 177 employees, Oreg (2006) found that personality and context were associated with attitudes towards a major change, and these in turn with satisfaction, commitment to the employer and intention to quit.
General information, not legal advice. Legal terms refer to German law.