In an interview, Ines Scheibe, head of a pregnancy conflict counseling center in Berlin and member of the board of the Humanist Association of Germany, explains why she is committed to refilling March 8 with political awareness. She emphasizes that there are still many good reasons for women and girls in Germany to become active in demanding equal rights and a self-determined life – not least in order to defend achievements that have already been fought for against the shift to the right that can be observed throughout Europe.
Feminism is a term that women identify with to very different degrees. What do you mean when you describe yourself as a feminist?
Dr. Ines P. Scheibe: The term feminism has many facets and there were and are very different feminisms and very different feminist theories, which the sociologist and historian Gisela Notz, among others, analyzed in her book Feminism, published in 2011. These include radical and liberal feminism, black feminism, left-wing feminism, lesbian feminism, Islamic feminism, new feminism, ecofeminism, postfeminism, cyberfeminism, queer feminism and conservative feminism. What they all have in common is the perception of inequality and discrimination against the female gender and the development of strategies to overcome it, with women* as actors and agents. There were and are differences of opinion as to whether and to what extent real equality requires a change in social conditions.
* = The asterisk for women*, humanists*, doctors*, etc. is intended to explicitly include all genders and gender identities.
And where or how do you personally identify yourself in the spectrum just mentioned?
I am a humanist and see myself as a socialist or left-wing feminist. My conviction is that patriarchal and capitalist conditions require fundamental change so that all people, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, social status and ethnic origin, can live truly free, self-determined lives in harmony with nature, without exploitation, incapacitation and oppression. And people must create these conditions for themselves. It is their responsibility to secure their life prospects and those of the entire planet for thousands of years to come. I am convinced that more and more people have or will develop the insight and ability to do this. Sooner or later, they will face up to this task.
However, social attitudes towards specifically feminist approaches are still quite ambivalent today.
It is true that the attitude of many people in our society, men and women*, towards feminism is still or once again rather critical. A large proportion of girls and young women* in Germany are convinced that they already enjoy equal rights and emancipation here. They have access to a good education, can be politically active and volunteer, are allowed to vote and almost all professions are open to them. It is only when they enter the family phase that they realize the huge differences that still exist between the sexes in terms of career opportunities, pay for work and political and voluntary activities. Poorer pay, additional burdens due to domestic and family work, fewer opportunities to take on political responsibility and the increasing sexism and racism in society as well as the criminalization of women who become pregnant unintentionally and decide not to carry the pregnancy to term are still or again part of everyday life. And the existential, physical and psychological problems of the refugee girls and women* who are now coming to us are a particularly serious result of previous male-dominated policies, especially in the USA and Europe.
One of the core demands of the women’s rights movement 100 years ago was universal suffrage. This goal was achieved. Other core demands are equal pay for equal work, sufficient legal protection for women workers, equal educational opportunities and adequate facilities to support women with children, the abolition of the criminal law paragraph 218 and full legal and political equality – how do you assess developments in these areas?
Yes, a lot has already been achieved for women. We have had universal suffrage for women in Germany since November 1918. In the first election for women, 82 percent of eligible voters took part – a quota that I would very much like to see in current elections! Equal educational opportunities for boys and girls, with access to universities and colleges, are also a matter of course today. More and more childcare facilities and professional care facilities make it possible for women to be gainfully employed and thus economically independent. This is a very positive development – if it were not for the very poor pay in the caring, support and social professions and in many service sectors where women are predominantly employed. The pay gap between men and women in Germany is still very wide. The international “Equal Pay Day” is dedicated to this grievance every year. This year, it will be celebrated on March 19, 2016. According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, women earned an average of 21.6% less than men in 2014. If you convert the percentage into days, women work 79 days for free, i.e. from January 1 to March 19, 2016. To raise social awareness of this scandal, Equal Pay Days are held in many regions every year. This year, there is also a campaign supported by the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Manuela Schwesig (SPD). The adoption of the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW) by the United Nations General Assembly on December 18, 1979 was a major step towards securing women’s rights worldwide. To date, this women’s rights convention has been ratified by 186 states, including all European states except the Vatican City State. The document sets standards for combating discrimination against women in the areas of culture, social affairs, education, politics and legislation and is now regularly analyzed. With regard to the recognition of women’s rights as human rights, the Women’s Rights Convention was a major step forward internationally. The content of this convention was further developed at the Cairo World Population Conference in 1994 and a year later at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing with the gender mainstreaming approach.
In Germany and other European countries, however, there are once again influential active movements that are openly attacking the achievements of the women’s rights status quo.
As far as the right to self-determined family planning and reproductive health of girls and women in Germany is concerned, I unfortunately have to say that there is still a lot to be done here. The social pressure on affected women, on doctors and counselling facilities that provide abortions in accordance with legal regulations, their stigmatization and criminalization has increased in recent years in Germany and Europe. For the first time, leading politicians of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) are once again calling for a general ban on abortions and are being supported by fundamentalist Catholics and evangelicals who are internationally networked. I have the impression that we have been going backwards for 25 years on this very fundamental issue for women and their lives. In the GDR, the Volkskammer passed the law on the interruption of pregnancy back in 1972. This regulation on abortion, unique in Germany, represented a departure from the previous indication-based regulation. This time limit regulation fundamentally changed the legal situation. For the first time on German soil, women were given the right to decide on their own responsibility within twelve weeks of the start of a pregnancy whether to terminate it and to receive contraceptive methods and medication free of charge. This was the fulfillment of a very important and long-standing women’s political demand, which unfortunately became a thing of the past with German unification, the entry into force of Section 218 of the German Criminal Code (StGB) and the obligation to provide counseling for unwanted pregnancies introduced in the Pregnancy Conflict Act in 1993 – until today.
Is it actually easy to activate people for the ideas and goals of the women’s rights movement at the present time?
No, it’s really not easy to interest and mobilize people for women’s rights today. There are so many existential problems for men and women, such as precarious employment, unemployment, the lack of affordable housing and a wide range of political and social challenges, as well as the urgent issues of climate protection, healthy eating and lifestyles, and solidarity-based aid for the many people who have to flee their countries. As a result, the issue of further expanding women’s rights for all girls and women living in Germany seems to have taken a back seat. Furthermore, as I said, there is a tendency for many people to think that everything is already pretty well regulated for women and girls in Germany, that there is nothing more to do. But among very young women and men, the general dissatisfaction with social conditions is giving rise to a renewed political interest and initiative for political work. I am very pleased about that. A very good example of this are the calls for Women’s* Struggle Day in Berlin by a broad alliance of youth organizations, women’s and youth initiatives, which have been taking place for the last three years on International Women’s Day. This year, a demonstration will begin on Sunday, March 6, at 1 p.m. on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The participants, hopefully including many humanists and JuHus, will take a stand against the exploitation and discrimination of women, against sexism and violence against women, against war, armament and militarization, against persecution and expulsion. They show solidarity with refugees and oppose the instrumentalization of women’s rights for racist agitation, advocate for a self-determined life and for the physical integrity and sexual self-determination of all girls and women. And the actions organized by the Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination in recent years, the conference on Paragraph 218 of the German Criminal Code on 7 March 2015 and the annual protests against the “March for Life” organized by so-called pro-lifers in Berlin are similar.
If, according to Simone de Beauvoir, the emancipated woman is understood as a being who demands to design herself as a free subject through activity, what should be the main goals of the women’s rights movement in Germany today in your eyes?
As Simone de Beauvoir, among others, recognized, women themselves must become the new political subject. This is the only way to achieve changes in personal relationships, in sexuality and in the social roles of girls and women. The second women’s movement in the 1970s was about new forms of relationships – grassroots democratic forms of politics, the dismantling of hierarchies, meaningful content in working life, in the diverse forms of individual coexistence, in politics and in society. Women have achieved a great deal for their emancipation and equality. Today it is a matter of securing this. Increasing conservative thinking, stronger fundamentalist Christian positions and unreflective political decisions are increasingly calling into question what has been achieved in society, the enrichment of society through female perspectives and instruments. We may have had a female chancellor for some years now, but this should not deceive us. There is still a great deal to be done in the direction of real equality between people – between genders, ethnicities, regardless of origin and individual characteristics – in terms of economic, social and political equality. Currently, the movement of refugees offers very good opportunities to recognize this and develop new potential to change society. This does not happen automatically and also harbors dangers of regression. There is an urgent need for education and the uncovering of the complex social connections between the causes and effects of the economic, ecological, social, ethnic and gender equality problems associated with the globalization of capitalist production and the concentration of international finance capital. As humanists, we must make a contribution to this.
Why do you consider International Women’s Day to be an event that is based on humanist ideas and concerns?
International Women’s Day, or International Women’s Day, which we now celebrate every year on March 8, goes back to the initiative of socialists, peace activists and women’s rights campaigners Clara Zetkin and Käthe Duncker. In 1911, with the support of social democrats and trade unions, the first “people’s assemblies” were held across Germany with the important demand for women’s suffrage. In Berlin, 45,000 women are said to have taken part at the time. In 1977, the UN General Assembly proclaimed this day as “Women’s Rights and World Peace Day” in a resolution. Since then, the annual events have focused on different themes. On 8 March, women all over the world hold events, celebrations and demonstrations to draw attention to the fact that women’s rights have still not been realized. And, as there is still a lot to do nationally and internationally with regard to the humanist demand for real gender equality in the manner described above, it is certainly not surprising that this day, March 8, has great significance for me as a humanist and left-wing feminist. This year, especially as Women’s Day and World Peace Day. However, I feel that Human Rights Day on December 10 every year and World Humanist Day on June 21 are just as important.
While the Catholic Church has always been a target of feminist criticism, the European left – and that includes the women’s rights movement – has been accused in recent years by various authors of displaying a false political correctness towards sexism and sexual violence with Muslim roots. Do you agree with this?
The European left and the women’s rights movement it supports are made up of many different people with individual attitudes. What they do have in common, however, is their clear position on social causes and consistent rejection of all forms of racism and religious fanaticism. All forms of sexism and sexual violence are also criticized by leftists and left-wing feminists, regardless of whether they have their roots in fundamentalist Christian or Islamist ideas. They denounce and reject rape as a method of war, as well as violence against women in the workplace and education, in the home, in public spaces and in the media. However, the left vigorously opposes the instrumentalization of women’s rights for racist agitation, as was attempted in Cologne and other cities after the attacks on women. The homophobic, anti-Semitic, radically anti-freedom, anti-equality, anti-democratic and anti-women ideology that has been spreading in Europe in recent years has been and continues to be consistently opposed by leftists and humanists from the outset. In my view, it is therefore not true that the left has stood idly by for too long. Other forces, especially those who like to call themselves the center of society, have to be told this. With its tradition of criticism of society, ideology and religion, the European left has been an essential element of the normative and practical emancipation and freedom movement since the Enlightenment. If leftists and left-wing feminists are accused of being too uncritical of the growing Islamist violence for reasons of political correctness, this is not correct. There is also a debate about Islam as a religion, about the development of religious fanaticism, violence and radicalization among migrants and their causes, which unfortunately have not been given enough political attention in the past. Now is the chance to learn from old mistakes and to use new research approaches on diversity, gender and inclusion for political and social action. We can make new positive experiences.
There are only two women on the board of the Humanist Association itself, and none of them at the – more or less formally important – top. How do you explain that?
As with many organizations, the Humanist Association’s structures and organization-specific culture are still very traditionally male-dominated, contrary to the values of gender equality proclaimed in the Humanist self-image. Too little effort is made at all levels of association policy to interest and motivate female Humanists for voluntary leadership roles and to use the potential of strong female representatives for innovations and modernization in the association’s culture. The result is that female humanists are in the minority and they resist the male-dominated culture as long as they have the strength and desire to do so. However, their capacity for suffering is often limited, and when the conviction grows that they are not making enough of a difference, they withdraw in disappointment.
March 8 is a public holiday in a number of countries. Should the day also be a public holiday in Germany?
In my opinion, March 8 would be a very suitable public holiday for Germany as long as there are still so many persistent equality deficits. This holiday would be of great symbolic importance. Alongside May Day, it would be another modern holiday without a religious background, and it would send out a clear women’s political signal. It would also be a recognition of old socialist and trade union intentions. I would gladly do without one of the religious holidays such as Ascension Day or Good Friday. Perhaps that would be a task for a red-red-green government to implement. As long as this is not the case, we will continue to hold our demonstrations with women’s political demands on the non-working Sunday before International Women’s Day on March 8. I very much hope for a good turnout from all humanists!
The questions were asked by Arik Platzek.
This Sunday, 6 March 2016, political, trade union and other civil society organizations are calling for demonstrations and rallies in Berlin and other German cities as part of Women’s* Struggle Day. They want to take their demands for equal rights and the guarantee of legal, social and sexual self-determination for women to the streets once again. More information about this year’s alliance events can be found at www.frauenkampftag.de
