Dr. Marion Gerlind and Jennifer Hilfer
June 26, 2009

We envision our Oral History Telling Evening as an interactive event. We will first talk about our own lives, experiences, and in what aspects they do (not) differ. Also, we are open to answering your questions and, of course, you are welcome to share your own experiences, thoughts, ideas and about similarities as well as differences between the women’s movements in Germany and the United States of America. Depending on participants’ preferences, our dialogue will be in German and/or in English.

Marion: I see myself as part of the Second Wave women’s movement in Germany and I have worked individually and collectively toward social justice. As a teenager, I rejected the diminutive term Fräulein and called myself Frau to assert my womanness. Attention to language has been an integral part of my life as language creates and reflects sociopolitical realities.

Jenny: Being born in 1985, I often get the impression that many in my generation are not conscious about feminism at all. Having in mind that all those main goals such as equal education, right to vote, right to work, right to abortion already have been achieved, people tend to assume that women are equal to men (so-called gender mainstreaming).