Photo: Unspash/Miguel Bruna
Today is a good day to abolish the patriarchy, «is the title of a book published last year, in which seven feminists of the third generation report on her personal experiences and strategies, against still cemented patriarchal structures, including a Muslim feminist, a pastor, an activist and one at that.
In fact, you don’t have to wait for March 8 to finally enforce full equality between the genders worldwide. After all, Women’s Day has been internationally committed for over a century, with powerful demonstrations, especially in the countries of the Global South, finally moved to public awareness in this country, the (West) media is no longer concealed in favor of the so-called mother day. But also the 25th year in the 21st century began with an unfinished, with the break of the traffic light coalition again in the drawer: deletion of the women’s discrimination criminal offense 218. It is feared that it will be slumbering forever under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Hardly anyone knows the violent resistances in the male -dominated CDU against any self -determination of women than Rita Süßmuth, about three decades member of this party. The Grande Dame of West German women’s emancipation, even if she does not see herself as such or would even describe it as a feminist, also mixes in social debates with 87. “Because stand by your hands in the lap without standing for the end – I won’t do that. On the contrary, «she confesses to courage in her new book, an instigation, adequately to Kant’s request to use your own mind. Rita Süßmuth also has “lust for thinking, new horizons and new solutions”. She is known as a politician who is not afraid of clear words, which is why she often tackled in her own party. Her motto of life, however, is borrowed from an “old white man”, the British Minister of War and War Winston Churchill: “Get up again than falling.” No, keeping your mouth is not her thing: “I am looking for the change to be better.”
Rita Süßmuth knows that many people are unsettled, fear of the new threats, the wars and climate catastrophe, inflation and recession, in front of jobs and prosperity. And in front of the “insane people in whose hands this world seems to have been advised”, populists and right-wing extremists, “who want to make their undemocratic and inhumane political concepts tasty in all countries in Europe” with cheap rat trousers. Instead of whining and resigning, she demands: »We do not sink into self -pity and fear of loss. Because we can all do something – everyone in their place. “
Rita Süßmuth has often proven in her eventful life that this is possible. After studying philology, history and pedagogy in Münster, Tübingen and Paris, the daughter of a school council, born in Wuppertal in 1937, initially worked at various universities of pedagogy of the Federal Republic. When she applied for a university office after her doctorate, she was pressed to step down in favor of a man and father of the family; She was still single, I have no children, and if she became a mother, she would leave working life anyway. Rita Süßmuth found an unprecedented request – and prevailed with her application.
As a professor at the University of Dortmund, she belonged to the scientific advisory board of the Federal Ministry of Family, which she was to lead for three years from 1985. From 1982 to 1985 she was director of the institute »Woman and Society« in Hanover. Their entry into the great politics was relatively late, the more sustainable the traces that she left as a CDU member of the Bundestag, as a Minister and Bundestag president, be it, be it with her efforts to reform paragraph 218, the promotion of compatibility of family and work, financial relief and recognition for educational and family work, for a women’s quota or with the proposal of a diet round for Parliamentarians or asylum, immigration and integration.
In her new book, Süßmuth comes up with the alienation of the parties of real life. “They seem to have lost their binding force for the people in our country.” Which is why she wants: “We need more representatives from professions such as butchers, nurses, lawyers, educators, entrepreneurs or machine locksmiths in parliament.” Rita Süßmuth, who tried to overthrow the Almighty Chancellor Helmut Kohl in autumn 1989 Oggersheimer saved the longing of millions of East Germans to D-Mark and “reunification”), but also discovered signs of hope. The commitment on the streets for climate protection and peace, against AfD and ethnic extremists encourage.
One does not have to agree with all the comments of the Rita Süßmuth (for example, their judgment on the background of the Ukraine War, the beginning of which is wrongly stated here on February 24, 2022; p. 36)- The reading of their autobiographically underpinned courage and gunmaker is highly recommended.
The West German professor and politician certainty “I believe in people and his strength to change” results, among other things, from the democratic upheaval in autumn 1989 in the GDR, which Rita Süßmuth appreciates euphorically. Simona Stoytchkova, who grew up in a record settlement in East Berlin and now on the executive floor of a globally operating financial company, was shaped by this. “An absolute exception in the world of pinstripes,” as the publisher advertises its life report. Managers from eastern Germany are still a rarity in United Germany, especially if they are female.
Simona Stoytchkova has worked at Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and the Société Générale and is boss of Germany at IG Europe GmbH. Up to these top functions (in institutions, which are not all known for exemplary businesses), it was a long, hard path for the East Germans who initially received reigns for their applications in the banking milieu after their studies (not at an elite university!). »I lacked the stable smell, ”she says in retrospect. The daughter of an engineer and a pharmacist East German origin had to experience after 20 years of work abroad, where, according to London, “The German” or, in Paris, “L ‘Allemande”, she had to experience in the Federal Republic as “those from the East”. A stigma equal to many other East Germans from their own experience.
Simona Stoytchkova prevailed. The basis of their success was not only the parents who supported them who, despite the clammy wallet, paid the student exchange in the USA and study in London, but also their experiences and experiences as a “turning child”. »As an adolescent, I learned to make a lot of creativity to solve the everyday problems with a lot of creativity. I didn’t feel any deficiency, I just didn’t know it any other way. I learned what my father gave me up: never to give up. “Like the other estimated 2.5 million” turning children “, she experienced the self-empowerment, the power of collectivity and the desire for immediate democracy and willingness to make decisions in the” short year of utopia “of the DDR, but also the fear and uncertainty of the adults after uniform Old became unemployed. She thanks her mother, a self -confident, emancipated woman who socialized in the GDR, who, with her strength, had a significant part in her pragmatism, “that I have become the manager I am today. Even today I still stick to your personal three-minute wisdom: Allow you to whine and feel sorry for yourself, but only for three minutes, and as soon as the three minutes are up, start to act in a solution-oriented manner. «
This is also a result of her East German impressions: Simona Stoytchkova repeatedly surprised her respective teams with an unconventional line style, explicit request to think independently, to bring criticism and to develop visions. The now 45-year-old acts actively for diversity and inclusion in the financial transaction, for the inclusion of people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds as well as from various social milieus, including non-binemic people.
“My name is Jana Ringwald. I am a cyber prosecutor. My job takes place in hidden, ”one reads at the beginning of the third book of a power woman to be presented here. Confidentiality, the author can of course not give any real names, only report on cases and negotiations to the extent that they became public. It is a breathtaking job she has. And one in which women are not exactly overrepresented. Jana Ringwald’s pride is more than justified: »In the past few years, I was able to participate in some of the most spectacular investigation success in international cybercrime control. On the shutdown of multimillion-heavy Darknet marketplaces and malware bot nets, on the Takedown world-leading illegal crypto mixing services and ensuring incriminated cryptocurrencies in three-digit millions. «
Jana Ringwald is a chief prosecutor at the central office to combat internet crime (ZIT) of the general prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt am Main and represents the Federal Ministry of Justice in the European Judicial Cybercrime Network near EuroJust in the Hague. In November 2023, she received the emotion award in the “Women in Digitization” category.
The author confesses not to have studied computer science. What she united with one of her defendant who noted in his main hearing: “I have not read any books, I learned everything on the net.” “It could have been the statement of so many cybizers,” comments Jana Ringwald. In this case, however, it was a operator of Wall Street Market who had programmed the entire Darknet marketplace.
No, this book does not easily read, whose subjects are highly complex technological processes and legal finesse. With a wink, Jana Ringwald confesses that the “digital new territory” was also brought closer to her in the manner of “Sesame Strasse”, “correct and yet understandable”.
“The Internet inspires us and scares us. Because we can no longer control what new forces are released, which question our reliability like hardly anything before, «writes Jana Ringwald. “It scares and is also a huge opportunities and options.” Unfortunately, the latter also for criminals. She sees her book as a plea against the fear of the cyber room and as offered to help shape the processes in it and to decide in any favor. Your reminder: »Data, tools and technical solutions have to serve us. And not us. ”This is how Jana Ringwald’s book, like that of Rita Süßmuth and Simona Stoytchkova, is also encouraged to all girls and women to dare the apparently impossible and to strive for the gear levers of power in business and society – to make these friendly, humane and fairer.
Rita Süßmuth: About courage. From grabbing, holding out and letting go. Bonivatius, 159 pages, born, 18.50 €.
Simona Stoytchkova: those from the east. As a turning child in the big business. Murmann, 232 pages, born, 25 €.
Jana Ringwald: Digital. Criminal. Human. A cyber prosecutor investigated. Murmann, 216 pages, born, 25 €.