German state equality ministers demand federal measures against women's poverty
At a conference in Dresden, Germany's state equality ministers adopted a lead motion calling for economic independence checks, better care support, and stronger links between poverty prevention and domestic violence protection.
The Dresden conference
Germany's state equality and women's ministers met in Dresden on 18 and 19 June 2026 for their regular conference, chaired by Saxony's equality minister Petra Köpping. Federal minister Karin Prien (CDU) also took part. The main outcome was a lead motion demanding that the federal government take urgent steps to combat women's poverty.
Poverty is one of the central reasons why people cannot participate in social life. And conversely: those who cannot participate also slide more easily into poverty.
Köpping said this cycle must be broken.
Economic independence and care work
Women are disproportionately affected by poverty, especially single parents, part-time workers, family caregivers, older women and women with a migration background. The motion calls for promoting economic independence for women – through more reliable childcare structures and a fairer distribution of care work within families. It proposes an 'independence check' to make poverty risks visible.
The ministers want reforms in tax and labour law to strengthen partnership-based employment and working-time models. Family caregivers, they said, need better social protection than foreseen in the current draft of the care law.
Violence prevention linkage
The conference explicitly linked economic dependency to gender-based violence. The ministers argued that poverty prevention and violence prevention must be interwoven. They called for nationwide guidelines on protection against violence and the further development of cross-state support for victims of domestic violence. Counselling services dealing with digitalised sexual violence should also be expanded.
Political unity and next steps
According to Köpping, there was broad consensus among the state ministers. The exchange with federal minister Prien was described as intensive. The conference chair rotates to Schleswig-Holstein in the coming year.
