The Femme Fiscale, which is the group cooperating in this Partnership proposal is an activist network and part of the non-profit civil society organisation „Plattform 20000frauen” (see www.20000frauen.at). The „Plattform 20000frauen” has been established in 2010, at the occasion of preparations for feminist activities of the 100 year anniversary of the International Women’s Day. It brings together a broad alliance of women, women’s organisations and networks (among others from autonomous women’s groups, charitable, church, development and party-affiliated organisations, from public and social partnership institutions, as well as from the media and cultural sector). Its main objective ist to give a public voice to the diversity of feminist approaches, demands and proposals which are still not implemented.
The „Plattform 20000frauen” is aiming for promoting gender equality of women and girls at all societal levels and contributing to a reduction of direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age or disability.
In order to promote these goals, the activists of the „Plattform 20000frauen” use different strategies and forms of action, which are being used depending on the necessities and available resources. Activities of the „Plattform” are focused on national and international Days of importance to the feminist movement or center around important topics, such as labour and social policies, migration and asylum policies, as well as economic policies.
Against this background the “Plattform” is also a networking platform, used for information sharing among activists and different cooperation partners, which include larger network organisations such as the Austrian “Frauenring”, the representative women’s network which is also active at the European level as a member of the European Women’s Lobby and the network of Austrian women’s and girls’ councelling centers (Netzwerk osterreichischer Frauen- und Madchenberatungsstellen).
The „Plattform 20000frauen” thus reaches a large number of women, feminist organisations in its ongoing work. However, the formal association is small, and includes 4 members which work on a voluntary basis. The Femme Fiscale is one of the networks organized in the context of the “Plattform” and includes feminist experts and organisations working on feminist perspectives on budgetary and economic policies, focusing on advocacy, educational activities such as workshops and university courses on Gender Budgeting.