This Wednesday, March 8th, is International Women's Day. In the federal states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Internationaler Frauentag has been an official holiday since 2019, meaning that offices, stores, and schools are all closed. However, the holiday has existed since the early 20th century as part of the women's rights movement.

The word for gender in German is das Geschlecht, so "gender equality" in German is die Gleichstellung der Geschlechter (note the genitive construction!). 

Ein Zeichen dafür, dass Frauen in Deutschland

A sign that women in Germany,

trotz der rechtlichen Gleichstellung

despite legal equality,

noch immer in bestimmten Aspekten des Lebens benachteiligt werden.

are still disadvantaged in certain aspects of life.

Captions 26-28, Gleichberechtigung - Internationaler Frauentag am 8. März

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What does gender equality look like? Getting the right to vote, which women have had in Germany since 1919, was certainly a watershed moment.

Was regelt das Wahlrecht in Deutschland?

What does the right to vote control in Germany?

Caption 29, Bundesrepublik Deutschland - Einbürgerungstest

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However, today's work is focused on women around the world being free from violence, oppression, and discrimination. In Germany, there are also questions of political representation and equal pay. 

Wir wollen eine Gleichberechtigung, keine Diskriminierung.

We want equality, not discrimination.

Caption 39, Integration von Nationalitäten - Hessen miteinander

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Here, there's still room for improvement in German politics and offices. However, there are some structures that support women in their work and family life. The noun die Elternzeit is used to describe time taken off by any parent of a new baby.

Da kannst du nur hoffen, dass dein Mann Elternzeit nimmt.

Then you can only hope that your husband takes parental leave.

Caption 48, Großstadtrevier - Nicht mit mir

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Of course, some older traditions still carry forward a slightly misogynistic viewpoint, as beautiful as the costumes may be:

Sind die Bollen rot, bedeutet das, dass die Frau unverheiratet ist.

If the balls are red, it means that the woman is unmarried.

Schwarze Kugeln sind das Zeichen für eine verheiratete Frau.

Black balls are the symbol for a married woman.

Captions 7-8, Cettina erklärt - Sitten und Bräuche

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Further Learning
Be sure to watch Cettina's video about Internationaler Frauentag on Yabla German!

Most nouns that are masculine and end in -e in their nominative singular form are called weak nouns, or schwache Substantive. Since most German nouns ending in -e are feminine, these exceptions are easy to recognize. There are, however, also weak nouns that don't end in -e in the nominative singular form, and these are harder to recognize. Many of these words are very similar to their English equivalents and relate to professions or politics. They can often be recognized by the fact that they end in -ant or -ist. 

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What sets them apart from other nouns is the fact that in all cases except for nominative, they end in -en or -n.

Here's an example of the weak noun der Präsident with the -en ending in the singular dative case: 
 

... und hab' auch mit dem französischen Präsidenten darüber gesprochen.

... and I've also talked to the French President about this.

Caption 68, Angela Merkel - beim Nachhaltigkeitsrat

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And the weak noun der Elefant in the singular accusative case:
 

Frederick, zeig mir einen Elefanten!

Frederick, show me an elephant!

Caption 3, Piggeldy und Frederick - Der Elefant

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And finally, der Mensch in the singular genitive case: 
 

Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar.

The dignity of a human being is inviolable.

Caption 38, Integration von Nationalitäten - Hessen miteinander

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Further Learning
Visit this page to see more examples of weak nouns, and visit Yabla German to find more examples of weak masculine nouns in practice.