5 Questions after International Women’s Day

That’s what the day does for me: it leaves me with questions. Basically they are all rooted in the same inner controversy of feeling honored and humiliated at the same time. Honored because of the attention, admiration and concern that is given to women, yet humiliated by the realization that things are pretty bad, if it is necessary to nominate a special day for this purpose.

Women & Technology?

I find this one tricky, don’t you? As a little girl I had no doubt as to which kind of toys were meant for girls and which for boys: Girls played with dolls and were creative, while boys took stuff apart and built things. No one would give me an electrical toy train for my birthday; I would play with my brothers whenever he let me. Who decided, that toy trains were not for me, just because I was girl?
When Star Wars was popular, my brother and I both built entire fleets of spaceships from paper and cruised the galaxies in the entire house for months.

Taking a closer look, though, the way he played was completely different from mine. His spaceships had a clear definition of speed, power and all kinds of technical parameters - mine had a beautiful design and carefully chosen names as well as a clear purpose. His spaceships fought wars; mine investigated the universe and send help to wherever it was needed.

An ever growing number of women are being honored for their achievements not only on this day, yet I found few who receive their recognition due to achievements in technology. A list of Top Ten TED talks by women included only one such woman: an MITprofessor with a fascination for robots. But guess what her robots are designed for? They are personal robots helping people; their purpose is to improve communication and interaction.

Women & Career?

It does seem that most women who have a successful career are not in technology. But there is no question, that women can build a career for themselves, if they choose to - at least in western society. In many cases I still wonder how they do it, though. The question for which I have not found an answer is whether a woman can have a career and still keep her family at first priority. Reading the stories of successful women, there often is a break in the plot, where they take time off to raise their children. For each of these, there are many more, whose stories will not be told, because they never managed to get back on the career train afterwards. How many male career stories do you know, that include such a break?

The issue is hot enough even for internet giant Google to do something about it or at least show awareness.  And thanks to international women’s day I learned about “Google Campus for Moms”, a workshop empowering young mothers who are also entrepreneurs. I am not at all sure they have the answer.

 

Women & Equality?

Does this mean women need to be treated special in order to be equal? The thought makes me shiver a little. It’s not like women are a minority. Neither are they less intelligent or less gifted. Or are they? There still is no consensus about that. While it is not politically correct to question women’s intelligence and abilities in a western society, it is still the way it thinks and acts in many areas of life. Why else do women still get paid less for doing the same job and why do they have such a hard time even getting certain jobs?

But equality is really a relative term. For most women in the world technology and career are not even part of their existence and the question of equality for many  evolves around being allowed to vote, drive a car, get an education or make a choice about their own lives and bodies.

 

Women & Human Rights?

But isn’t that what makes us human? The ability to make a choice, rather than act on pure instinct or conditioned behavior is what separates us from the rest of the animal world. Yet women are still denied the right to use this very ability in too many African, Arab and Asian countries. Their freedom is reduced to an extent where they do not even have a voice to speak out and make themselves heard on the day of their honor. Who is to speak up for human rights and expose violence against women in countries, where girls are made to feel sub-human? I recall few.  One belongs to Liberian Nobel Prize winner Leymah Gbowee; another to an unbelievable courageous teenage girl fleeing Pakistan after an attempt to assassinate her for speaking up.

Could it be that people really believe women to be less human? It seems unfathomable, but that’s what the evidence indicates.

 

Women & Abuse?

From this attitude the path to abuse is very short. While I am contemplating whether girls playing with dolls and boys playing war is just an imposture by society or deeply rooted in the divine purpose of life, millions of girls are sold, raped, forced to prostitution or similar labor, trafficked, mutilated, killed or simply left to die. The dimensions of abuse and brutality are hard to grasp. How can this be?

The movement “Half the Sky” has put the problem on the tables of influential and famous women around the world and inspired them to act. Watching their documentary has changed the way I feel about being a woman. It has made me humbly grateful for the way I live and the possibilities I have. It has also sharpened my awareness of female vulnerability. I came to understand that only the strength of women in modern societies can change the fate of those treated like property or worse. Only women leaving their mark on technology, striving for a career, fighting for complete equality and against the violation of human rights can state the case for those who have no voice and confront the abusers.

I am left with more questions than answers, but also one important realization: improving the status of women around the world would improve human society as such.

 

Hals und Beinbruch! – muss das sein?

Vieleicht sollten wir dieses beeindruckende Mandelbäumchen in seiner vollen Blüte dazu befragen. Nicht nur hat es den Bruch überlebt, es scheint obendrein einen Weg gefunden zu haben seine eigene Schönheit neu zu definieren. Das seit hundert Jahren schlimmste Winterwetter hatte es regelrecht zu Boden geschlagen und ihm gnadenlos alle Glieder gebrochen, die dem nicht Stand halten konnten.

 

In diesen Tagen beginnt sich die Natur in und um Jerusalem in ihre Frühlingsfarben zu kleiden und man kann sich kaum noch vorstellen, wie sie noch vor zwei Monaten ausgesehen hatte, als der Schneesturm an ihr herum gezerrt hatte.

 

Am letzten Wochenende lockte mich der Wunsch die Anmut der neu erwachenden Natur mitzuerleben aus dem Haus. Dieses ungewöhnliche Mandelbäumchen erweckte sofort meine Aufmerksamkeit und Neugierde. Anfangs verstand ich nicht, was meine Augen sahen. Erst als ich näher heran ging wurde mir klar, das der Ast des Baumes unter der Last des Schnees gebrochen war, was diesen Erstblüher regelrecht in die Knie gezwungen hatte. Die wunderbare Prophetin des Frühlings hatte sich jedoch nicht unter kriegen lassen und brachte dennoch eine Fülle von prächtigen Blüten hervor. Da sie an einem Hang steht, scheint das Weiss der Blüten geradezu den Hang hinunter zu fliessen oder wie eine Schleppe von ihr herunter zu gleiten.

 

„Wie tiefsinnig“ dachte ich. Drückt diese Prinzessin der Bäume nicht etwas aus, was Philosophen immer wieder in Worte zu fassen versuchen, wohl schon seit es Worte gibt? Es birgt in sich eine Weisheit, die Denker überall in der Welt immer wieder neu zu formulieren suchen. Erst vor Kurzem las ich einen Artikel, der erklärte warum man erst fehlschlagen müsse, bevor man wirklich erfolgreich sein könne.

 

Als ich weiter spazierte zeigte sich mir eine noch krassere Illustration dieser Idee. Dieses zerbrechliche junge Mandelfräulein hat es sogar noch schlimmer erwischt. Ihre gesammte Krone war herunter gerissen. Das hielt sie jedoch nicht davon ab ihre Blümchen zum Lobgesang auf die Kontinuität des Lebenszyklus zu öffnen.

 

Welchen tiefsinningen Spruch könnte ich wohl diesem Bild hinzufügen, wenn ich es auf meinem Facebookpage teile? Welchen Denker könnte ich am besten zitieren, um dem Ausdruck zu geben was hier passiert war? Würde ich überhaupt noch einen Spruch finden, der nicht schon vollkommen ausgekaut ist und jedem nur ein müdes Lächeln abgewinnen würde bevor er/sie weiter scrollt zum nächsten profunden Bla auf seiner/ihrer Wand? Wahrscheinlich nicht.

Die Wahrheit ist doch, dass wir alle lieber schön und erfolgreich wären ohne uns die Glieder brechen und die Kronen von Kopf reissen lassen zu müssen.  Aber diese Mandelbäumchen sind trotzdem toll.