Ormai non conto più le volte in cui ho letto che le religioni, tutte le religioni sono oppressive nei confronti delle donne. Tutte? Ma siamo cosi' sicuri? Può ad esempio essere considerata misogina la Chiesa Evangelica Luterana del Venezuela che ha eletto la reverenda Guillermina Chaparro come sua presidente?

http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2357.EN.html

The new president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Venezuela (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Venezuela - IELV) Rev. Guillermina Chaparro says her election as the head of the church is an indication of the IELV’s steady growth, especially in the rural areas.

The first woman to head the church, Chaparro was elected and installed on 6 February at the IELV’s 12th general assembly in Caracas, Venezuela. She said her election was the “culmination of a process that has been in gestation within the church.” She succeeds Rev. Akos Puky who has served as church president since 2002.

The Lutheran church is growing steadily in communities in the provinces, “thus it is logical that leaders emerge in these areas to contribute to church leadership,” Chaparro explained in an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI). “I come from a grassroots community in a poor part of the (western) State of Barinas,” she said.

Nella vecchia europa, in Germania, la nazione che ha dato i natali a Lutero, Ilse Junkermann è stata eletta vescovo della Evangelical Church in Central Germany.

Oberkirchenrat Ilse Junkermann of Stuttgart has become the first woman bishop of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM). In the third round of secret balloting, the church synod in Wittenberg on 21 March elected the 51-year-old theologian by more than the required two-thirds majority.

Junkermann thus becomes the fourth woman bishop in the history of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), after present bishops Maria Jepsen from Hamburg and Margot Kässmann from Hanover, and Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter from Lübeck, who retired last year.

http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/2354.EN.html

Securing sufficient funding is the greatest obstacle to improving women's well-being and rights in the developing world, officials attending a conference on sexual and reproductive health said Friday.

Scott Radloff of the U.S. Agency for International Development told The Associated Press that the United States plans to increase its support for programs driven by that philosophy.

"We're likely to be witnessing about a 50 percent increase in funding for both family planning, reproductive health and for maternal/child health over a two-year period," Radloff said, without specifying exactly how much money would be allocated.

He said the funds would be distributed through NGOs and foreign governments, particularly in Africa and South Asia, where he and others at the conference see the greatest opportunity to spur development by improving women's health and rights.

"We put the money where the need is greatest," Radloff said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hb5T4iZdH-11qaUvKq4LuLv5Q7HQD9AGHPVO1

One of the reasons why successes in the arena of sexual and reproductive health are slow coming is that few people comprehend what is at stake. Michelle Goldberg, author of The New York Times bestseller, ‘Kingdom Coming’ said it is perplexing  that there is ‘so little understanding’ of sexual and reproductive health and rights in her country, the United States of America. ‘Savvy, well-informed people look at me blankly when I tell them that there is a global battle going on over sexual and reproductive health, and yet our [US] policies have impact over global health.’ Part of the problem, in getting people to pay attention could be that it was not an easy issue to ‘summarise in quick sound bytes,’ added Goldberg. Moreover, she said, it was hard to get people excited when the results seem vague and amorphous but have real world impact.

‘We call for an end to all forms of discrimination in connection with accessing and using health services, access to health services to be free of financial risks, universal access to sexual and reproductive health information, and services to be realized by 2015 at the latest, self-determination and the realisation of women’s human rights to be seen and promoted as being key to making sustainable progress on population development and health care.’ That’s a tall order for the immediate future. But without fulfilling it, the world will be forced to face a myriad of preventable human rights and resources-related crises.

the study also found that women in Germany earn 23 percent less than men – well above the EU average of 16.6 percent less. The gender gap is larger in only Cyprus, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Estonia. The smallest wage gaps are in Italy (4.4 percent), Portugal and Slovakia (both at 8.3 percent).

European trade unions sharply criticised salary development in Germany, The unfair difference between male and female salaries is a scandal, said General Secretary for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Reiner Hoffmann, told the paper.

"The employers in Germany must finally change and give women equal rights in payment,” he said. “Other countries show that it’s possible.”

Research conducted by the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) has found that women are still struggling to reach the top positions in Germany’s leading companies.

According to the study, only 42 of the 1,721 executive committee members at Germany’s top 600 listed companies are women. This corresponds to just 2.4 percent. The study also found that just 8.2 percent of those sitting on Boards of Directors were female.

“Even more shocking than the low proportion was the fact that, over the last ten years, significant change has not been made,” Professor Lindstädt added.

“Many more businesses should be forced to publicise the proportion of women in their top three positions as part of their Corporate Governance Reports. That way we can gain more transparency on this important point,” he said.

Perhaps one reason for this might be the fact that women who are successful in these economies face less social criticism than German women, who confront, for example, accusations that they are abandoning their maternal duty,

http://www.thelocal.de/money/20090916-21975.html

Congratulazioni alla Cancelliera Merkel per la sua rielezione. Ovviamente mi felicito che un paese importante come la Germania abbia confermato per la seconda volta di voler essere guidato da una donna. Da adesso in avanti la figura del cancelliere potrà essere associata ad una donna come ad un uomo.

Questo non significa che le donne tedesche abbiano raggiunto la parità assoluta come si evidenzia dall'articolo riportato, l'ultimo di una serie. Esiste a quanto pare un importante problema legato alla disparità salariale nel mondo del lavoro. Mi auguro che la cabcelliera Merkel se ne occupi con la massima urgenza e che abbandoni il disgraziato progetto di ampliamento delle centrali nucleari.

The wage gap for the government jobs averaged 18.7 percent, the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) study found.

The difference was particularly stark in middle and high positions, where the difference was 23.2 and 22.6 percent. Meanwhile female judges were found to earn 20.1 percent less than their male colleagues.
 

Dalla Germania un'ottima notizia. Congratulazioni alla neo-eletta! Con l'auspicio di vedere più donne vescovo tra i luterani tedeschi.

Hannover Bishop Margot Käßmann became the first woman to lead the Protestant church in Germany on Wednesday after the majority of the synod voted in her favour.

Following the vote in Ulm, Käßmann, who has been at the helm of Germany’s largest regional church for more than 10 years, will lead all of Germany’s 25 million Protestants for the next six years.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091028-22863.html

Segnalo la notizia perchè potrebbe avere delle ripercussioni positive anche per le donne che si trovano ad esempio ai vertici di enti pubblici o aziende private. Essere una madre non significa non potere o dovere dedicarsi con impegno al proprio lavoro, in questo caso quello di parlamentare.

There are several mothers in parliament who have infants, the paper said. Free Democrat Judith Skudelny recently caused a stir when she brought her four-month-old baby daughter into a parliamentary session.

Since then, several female parliamentarians have been pressing Bundestag administrators for a new rule to allow babies if mothers can’t find alternative child care.

Supporters of the measure are also reviewing other options to accommodate politicians with babies, such as a day care room near the plenary hall of the Reichstag building, the paper said.

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091217-23999.html

Bene. Ben gli sta. Speriamo che maturi e cambi atteggiamento nei confronti delle donne.

A Berlin rapper who goes by the stage name of Frauenarzt – or "gynaecologist" – was fined €8,400 by a court on Monday for distributing violent pornographic writings and depictions of violence.

The Tiergarten district court found the 31-year-old guilty of producing two CDs in 2006 containing songs that describe the torture, mutilation and murder of women in excessive detail.

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091221-24095.html

Chancellor Angela Merkel may run the country but women only make up 2.5 percent of the members of executive boards at the 200 biggest German companies, holding 21 seats out of 833, according to the study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin.

Among the 30 firms listed on the DAX blue-chip index, electronics giant Siemens is the only group to have a woman on its board, it said.

"There will be no change in this trend without binding rules," the study concluded, citing the example of Norway, which mandates that companies must reserve 40 percent of seats on executive boards for women.

E' interessante che sia proprio una donna di origini turche a lanciare il dibattito.

“The burka is a full-body prison that deeply threatens human rights,”she told daily Frankfurter Rundschau. “It would be an important signal for Germany to ban the burka.”

A burka ban in German should include schools, universities, and high-security zones such as banks and airports, she said. 

Meanwhile the Free Democrats' integration expert Hartfrid Wolff called the burka a particular form of discrimination that courts should not tolerate. 

http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100128-24873.html

Si stanno cominciando a rendere conto che senza le quote i passi in avanti per le donne nelle posizioni apicali sono scarsi o nulli.

Europe's biggest telecommunications group, Deutsche Telekom, said Monday it would introduce a 30-percent quota for women in senior positions by the end of 2015.

"Having a greater number of women at the top will quite simply enable us to operate better," chief executive Rene Obermann said. "Taking on more women in management positions is not about the enforcement of misconstrued egalitarianism. It is a matter of social fairness and a categorical necessity for our success."

http://www.thelocal.de/money/20100315-25883.html

“As an economist, I'm for self-regulation and creating voluntary incentives for companies to hire women,” Elke Holst, from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), told Deutsche Welle. “But, personally, I feel too little has happened and stronger action, such as legislation, may be necessary.”

According to DIW, only 2.5 percent of all executive board members in Germany's 200 largest companies (excluding the financial sector) are women, and only 10 percent of all seats on supervisory boards are occupied by women.

Overall progress in Europe has been slow, with the exception of Norway. In 2008, the Nordic country introduced a law mandating a 40 percent representation of women in boardrooms, with penalties for those companies that fall short of the quota.

According to a study conducted by the European Professional Women's Network (EPWN), the percentage of women on boards in Europe's 300 largest companies was 9.7 percent at the end of 2008, up from 8.5 percent in 2006 and 8 percent in 2004. Without Norway, the percentage dropped to 9.1 percent.

“We conduct the study only every two years because, as you can see, there has been very little progress,” said current EPWN president Monica Pesce, who is also president of the Professional Women's Association in Italy.

La chiesa luterana tedesca ha perso la sua prima donna leader. Brutta storia. La Kassman era stata sorpresa al volante in stato di ebrezza e multata. In seguito a ciò ha immediatamente rassegnato le sue dimissioni. Quanti leader maschi cattolici ed islamici implicati in situazioni ben più gravi come pedofilia o terrorismo hanno avuto la dignità di dimettersi?

We deeply regret Margot Käßmann's decision to resign her functions. The integrity and clarity of her theological, sociopolitical and societal positions will be missed within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Her departure is a great loss for German Protestantism and a cause of great personal sadness. This departure, however, is consistent precisely with the integrity that we deeply appreciate in Margot Käßmann.

http://www.ekd.de/english/4250-4517.html

« Il me semble que Margot Kässmann a tiré très vite – peut-être trop – les conséquences de son erreur », a expliqué Denis Müller à ProtestInfo. « La question est rendue plus difficile quand la personne est très médiatisée ». M. Dubied abonde dans son sens: « Sans la médiatisation préalable de la cheffe de l'Eglise protestante allemande, elle n'aurait peut-être pas été sanctionnée de cette façon. Et sans la médiatisation de l'incident de l'ivresse au volant, elle n'aurait certainement pas dû quitter son poste ».

Le fait qu'elle soit une femme a certainement joué un rôle. « Il est clair que les femmes sont plus exposées à ce niveau de responsabilité. On attend d'elles plus de perfection et de professionnalisme », a évalué M. Müller.

http://www.protestinfo.ch/201003115270/ivresse-au-volant-la-cheffe-de-leglise-allemande-devait-elle-demissionner

http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20100225-25503.html

A woman born in the former East Germany is claiming discrimination after discovering the word "Ossi" preceded by a minus sign had been written on a job application rejected by a firm in western Germany. She's going to court.

Born in the former East Germany, Gabriela S. applied unsuccessfully for a job with a window manufacturer in the southwestern city of Stuttgart. When her application materials were returned to her, she found someone from the company had written the word "Ossi" preceded by a minus sign on her resumé.

"Ossi" is an term for eastern Germans that is often derogatory.

She is suing the company for discrimination based on ethnic origin. If she wins, the firm could be forced to pay her €4,800, or the equivalent of three months' salary. 

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100411-26469.html

While a nationwide study has yet to be undertaken, regional data from Cologne and Frankfurt shows that young women of Turkish background try to kill themselves twice as often as their German counterparts, daily Die Welt reported on Friday.

But a cooperation between Berlin’s Charité hospital and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf that began in early 2009 aims to find out the reasons behind the disturbing numbers.

Both facilities are now monitoring the statistics for suicide attempts by young women from Germany's largest immigrant population that are treated in their emergency rooms – in particular the reason the patients say they wanted to die, the paper said.

Papatya, an help centre for young female immigrants in Berlin, told the paper that it frequently helps women who already have already attempted suicide in the past.

“Often it’s a desperate attempt to give the family a sign that something must change that isn’t being heard, or that the family doesn’t want to believe,” a spokeswoman said. “Sometimes the girls have told us, ‘I’d rather kill myself than let my brother do it’.”

Charité’s Schouler-Ocak said that many of the women who try to kill themselves are completely dependent on their family or husband – particularly those young those who have come directly from Turkey as “import brides.” 

About 30 children and youths, largely of Lebanese, Palestinian and Iranian descent, threw stones at the dancers on Sunday, shouting “Jews out!” daily Berliner Morgenpost reported.

The youths were aged from 10 to 15, the paper reported.

The dance troupe, named Chaverim – Hebrew for “friends” – broke off their performance after one of their members was hit in the leg by a stone and lightly injured.

Charlotte Knoblauch, president of the German Jewish Council, said the incident showed “a new social provocation, which already in the past weeks is clearly visible as it hasn’t been before.”

Hannover Mayor Stephan Weil branded the incident “unacceptable.” The city was meanwhile pursuing charges of incitement and attempted assault. He said at a press conference Wednesday there was “no evidence that the crime was prepared by an organisation or in advance.”

The chairman of the Jewish community in Lower Saxony, Michael Fürst, said however that “the children acted at least with the approval, if not even the direction of their parents.”