As of: March 8, 2024 5:00 a.m
From organizing route planning to speaking at the rally: women are more present at demonstrations than ever. In addition to solidarity and recognition, many are also met with sexism – some are even threatened.
Her voice rings out over Lübeck’s town hall market at the climate strike rally: “We’re going together?!” The many-voiced answer: “We’re on strike together!” Katharina Kewitz is on stage in a neon yellow vest – she coordinated the joint campaign by “Fridays for Future” and the ver.di union. The weekend before, she had a microphone in her hand – at the start of a demonstration against right-wing extremism through Lübeck’s old town.
Katharina Kewitz organizes demos for climate protection and against right-wing extremism.
The 25-year-old medical student wants to counteract hesitant climate protection policies, poor working conditions in public transport and the shift to the right, which is why she organizes demos – she has been primarily active in the climate movement for around three years, she says. The confidence that they can change something spurs them on: “Change doesn’t happen by itself, we have to fight for it in the streets,” says Katharina Kewitz. “But we also know that it is possible if we come together – if there are many of us.”
Sociologist: More women in protest
More and more women are becoming publicly involved in protest movements, says sociologist Prof. Dr. Dieter Rucht from IPB, Institute for Protest and Movement Research in Berlin. Research on women in climate protests comes from Austria: Prof. Dr. Antje Daniel, protest and gender researcher at the Institute for International Development at the University of Vienna, worked on a survey in 13 European cities. “We are seeing an increase in women in political activities in some areas, but also in demonstrations.” she said in an interview with the Austrian “Kleine Zeitung” – 60 percent of the demonstrators at climate demos were female.
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Sonja Klüver has been particularly committed to diversity and democracy since her career. The 33-year-old, with roots in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is part of the management team of the intercultural meeting place “Haus der Kulturen” in Lübeck and, among other things, co-organized a demonstration against right-wing extremism in Lübeck and gave a speech there. She also observes that many young women are present in protests – in her opinion, a global phenomenon: “We have women’s protest movements in Iran, which of course have a completely different scale than here. When the women there take to the streets, They run the risk of being arrested, tortured and, in the worst case, murdered.”
Mia: “We were bombarded with phone calls at night”
Mia from Henstedt-Ulzburg has repeatedly organized demos in recent years – together with her friends from the “Alliance for Democracy and Diversity”. At first hardly any people came – at the end of January there were around 3,500 people on the streets. “It’s worth spending hours concocting plans,” she said in the Schleswig-Holstein Magazine: “Now there are so many here and they represent the diversity in our country.”
The young woman’s actual name is different – Mia doesn’t want to give her real name for security reasons. “We were bombarded with late-night phone calls,” she says. Climate and democracy activist Katharina also felt threatened: “When videos of me end up on right-wing YouTube channels, it makes you feel uneasy. At the same time, that’s no reason to give up, because it shows that we’re touching a nerve .”
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With irony against sexist sayings
Misogynistic and derogatory comments are also not uncommon: “Old men always tell me: If I had two children and a single-family home, I would see everything completely differently,” says Katharina Kewitz. “That’s nonsense and doesn’t reflect the reality of life for many women and, above all, it doesn’t deny us having opinions on social injustices and fighting against them.”
Sonja Klüver from the “House of Cultures” is committed to democracy and diversity.
Sonja Klüver receives a lot of support for her work in the “House of Cultures” and for her commitment, but sometimes a certain surprise comes through: “It’s as if I, as a woman or as a migrant, aren’t really expected to do that much,” she says. She then asks ironically whether she should have stayed at home and cooked something. “Then, of course, people look at you strangely because they expect you to say: Oh yes, thank you. But that’s just not my approach.”
Climate and democracy activist: “Form gangs!”
Her approach, her motivation: Sonja Klüver wants to contribute to change in society. “Until people who live here have equal rights – regardless of whether they are men, women, migrants.” Mia in Henstedt-Ulzburg hopes that right-wing extremist ideas will disappear from people’s minds – at best, including the AfD. Making the world shaped by patriarchy better and fairer – that’s what drives Katharina. She is happy about the many women in protest movements and hopes that there will be even more: “Form gangs! Get together.”
Further information
Women have been fighting for more rights for more than 100 years. The first International Women’s Day was called in Germany in March 1911. more
But the inequality in the labor market is even greater – this is a problem for Social Affairs Minister Touré. more
Schleswig-Holstein Magazine
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Schleswig-Holstein Magazine | 03/08/2024 | 19:30 o’clock