8 March is International Women''s Day. In 2022, the United Nations will focus on breaking down prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination: "Break the Bias".
The Equal Opportunities Office picks up on this motto and uses the film Picture a Scientist to highlight the careers of female scientists who are constantly working for recognition, respect and equality. In the 2020 film biography about women scientists, a biologist, a chemist and a geologist take the audience along in their experiences of an academic career - as women of science. The film can be viewed via stream from 8 March [trailer]. If you are interested, please contact Jana Pannicke at the University Equal Opportunities Office and she will send you a link: info@chancenvielfalt.uni-hannover.de
Women''s Day first took place in 1911, and in 1975 the UN celebrated the "United Nations Day for Women''s Rights and World Peace" for the first time.
International Women''s Day originated as an initiative of socialist organisations in the quest for equal rights, emancipation and women''s suffrage - inspired by US feminists. At an international women''s conference in 1910, the German social democrat Clara Zetkin, together with Käthe Dunker, pushed for the introduction of an international women''s day. At the first Women''s Day celebration on 19 March 1911, the focus was for the first time on demands for women''s rights, voting rights for women, but also better working conditions for working women. In 1921, the Second International Conference of Communist Women in Moscow chose 8 March as a fixed date. Until today, women from many countries work together for their rights on this day.
These women have been leading advocates of equal rights for women and, in particular, of women''s suffrage:
Clara Zetkin 1857–1933
Clara Zetkin was one of the most important representatives of the women''s and workers'' movement, a socialist, pacifist, campaigner for women''s suffrage and founder of International Women''s Day. Clara Zetkin persistently campaigned for better working and living conditions for women.
Hedwig Dohm 1831–1919
As early as 1873, she was one of the first in Germany to demand voting rights for women and legal, social and economic equality for men and women. In her writings, Hedwig Dohm repeatedly makes it clear that it is a human right to participate politically, to study and to lead a self-determined life.
Anita Augspurg 1857–1943
In order to better enforce women''s suffrage, Anita Augspurg began studying law in Zurich in 1893, since as a woman she was denied access to law school in the German Reich. She returned to Germany as the first German woman to receive a doctorate in law. She campaigned in particular for women''s suffrage and legal equality for women.
Dr. Elisabeth Selbert 1896–1986
The jurist Dr. Elisabeth Selbert not only formulated the principle of equality during the negotiations in the Parliamentary Council in 1948/49, but also fought for its inclusion in the catalogue of fundamental rights. "Men and women have equal rights"
