Helga Konrad

Campaign initiator „Ganze Männer machen halbe-halbe“ (“Real men go fifty-fifty“)

Women’s policy is not a minority issue; women’s policy is democracy policy.

Helga Konrad, born in Graz in 1948, pursued Romance and English language and literature studies at the University of Graz and at the Sorbonne University in Paris. After completing her doctorate in 1975, she worked as a consultant in the education department of the Styrian Chamber of Labour from 1977 to 1980. She then moved into cultural management and was managing director of Steirische Kulturinitiative (Styrian Cultural Initiative in Graz) from 1980 to 1993. This was also the time when she became involved in politics, with women’s issues very quickly becoming the focus of her work. In 1987, she became a member of the Graz City Council, in 1993 first Graz City Councillor for Women’s Affairs, from 1991 to 1997 she was Regional Women’s Representative for the Styrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and, from 1995, also elected Austrian Federal Women’s Representative.

In the same year, she was appointed Austrian Federal Minister for Women’s Affairs and held this position until 1997. In this role, she launched the campaign “Ganze Männer machen halbe-halbe” (Real Men Do Fifty-fifty) in 1996, which not only sparked heated debate in Austria, but also caused quite a stir. The aim of the campaign was to establish a partnership-based division of care work through legal measures in family and matrimonial law. Helga Konrad always regretted that this was rejected after a change of government. In her opinion, the structures for a fairer distribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men should be created by politics and the economy.

As a minister, Helga Konrad also campaigned against trafficking in women and sexual exploitation. From 2006, she advised governments, parliaments and international organisations on combating all forms of human trafficking.

In 1999, Helga Konrad was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria. In 2024, she was awarded the Graz Women’s Prize for her life’s work.