Women Power

In the winter of 2012/2013, Red Baron attended a series of public lectures on Freiburg's Mediaeval history titled Auf Jahr und Tag (In the year, on the day). I reported on the presentation of the proceedings, including all the papers given.

The lectures on Freiburg's early history were so successful that the organizing institutes presented another series of lectures on events linked to particular dates in Freiburg's modern history during this winter term.

The series started in November last year with a lecture on May 24, 1525, a date when revolting farmers occupied the city. It will end in March of this year with a talk about November 11, 1948. On that date, the city council approved plans for the reconstruction of Freiburg, which had been destroyed four years earlier in an air raid on November 27, 1944, another of those key dates.

Last Monday, Dr. Ute Scherb spoke about:

©Ute Scherb

On February 28, 1900, Ash Wednesday, Freiburg's university opened its gates to female students. Before that date, women had been tolerated as Gaststudenten (auditors) in some university lectures* but were unable to acquire an academic degree.
*As early as 1790, when Freiburg's society ladies  stormed Georg Jacobi's university courses

The square in front of the main building of Freiburg's university, in its original shape,
during the Gründerzeit seen from the site of the new university library.
To the right is the old library building and a female student.
Until last year, a four-lane street running along the front divided Freiburg.
Since traffic was banned on August 27, 2012, the old campus of 1900 will become
the new university campus once the construction work in the area is finished (©Ute Scherb).

In the 19th century, Switzerland was more advanced in women's education than Germany. The first female high school in Switzerland, which met matriculation standards, opened in 1860, and the University of Zürich accepted female students starting in 1866. With all this progressiveness, no one in the audience could explain the irony of why women in Switzerland did not get the right to vote until 1971. In contrast, in Germany, women's suffrage was introduced in 1919.

The first high school for girls in Baden was opened in Karlsruhe in 1893. Subsequently, around 1900, the first female graduates claimed their right to a university education. The opposition in Germany to female university students was considerable. In 1876, the professor of Catholic theology in Freiburg, Alban Stolz, pointed out the direction: The female sex is physically and intellectually weaker. Should I mention here that the fundamentalist Stolz was an outspoken anti-Semite too?

When the decree of the Baden Ministry of Education granting female students the right to enroll at Freiburg's university arrived in the city on February 28, 1900, all doors suddenly opened. Freiburg's first female student was Johanna Kappes, a graduate of Karlsruhe's high school. She enrolled in the medical faculty, completed her studies successfully, and graduated from Freiburg University with a doctor's degree in medicine. At that time, educated, wealthy citizens (Bildungs- und Besitzbürger) were the driving forces. In the beginning, female students often had chaperones with them, protecting them in a male university environment.

Today, there are more female than male university students in Germany. Although generally finishing their education with better exams than men, women still face discrimination in higher positions. Nevertheless, among all the males, Red Baron had two female bosses during his professional life. I remembered my excellent experience when I later had to choose applicants at selection boards for jobs at CERN. Besides, I was impressed by the fact that the female candidates were generally better educated than their male competitors.

In 2009, when I said goodbye to my successor at CERN, I was happy to learn that a female scientist I had once recruited was taking over. This must have been some initial spark: In November 2014, the CERN Council elected its first female Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti.

CERN's new and "old" DG (©CERN)

More women power

(©dpa)

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen at the Security Conference in Munich on February 6, 2015, on the war in eastern Ukraine: Es gibt in der Ukraine schon zu viele Waffen (There are already too many weapons in Ukraine).

(©Reuters)

Chancellor Angela Merkel, following her visit to the US at a joint press conference with President Obama in the White House on February 9, 2015, on the war in Eastern Ukraine: Wir setzen weiter auf eine diplomatische Lösung. Eine militärische Lösung sehe ich nicht (We continue to count on a diplomatic solution. I don't see any military solution).

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