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1. This is always an exciting question for me because in the U.S. we are not allowed
to celebrate International Women’s Day. It more or less counts as a socialist holiday
from the old days. We officially celebrate women’s history month. In the U.S. we also
have the challenge that our country is so big and women are so under pressure and busy
that they don’t really think how women in other countries are doing unless they visit
a course or a seminar on the issue. I noticed it with my students when they all of a sudden
realized: “Oh, I have no idea that women live like this.” Foremost, if I may say
so, we have the challenge of “empowerment.” I think we shouldn’t start in the area of
politics because these women, especially underprivileged women also in my country, need a lot of help
in setting up new businesses, smaller enterprises, in order to secure their own existence so
that they don’t always depend on the state or on other projects. I think there is something
happening in the area of “social enterprising,” but we may get back to that later. But the
biggest problems are in regions like Sudan, Syria, or even in Egypt and Libya. We don’t
know what will happen to women’s rights there. We had all hoped for a democratic revolution
and we can see how quickly things can be turned back. If we want to get engaged politically
we should make sure our politicians put more pressure on those countries. But we can help
women best if we create economic possibilities for them. I think what the EU and also the
UN did for a long time, “gender mainstreaming” of foreign aid, is extremely important. If
funds go to these countries at all then women should have a direct and equal share in them.
Funds should be distributed in such a fashion that women also profit from our foreign aid.
2. I do believe that women can play a very important role in politics especially if they
have reached a critical mass. We can see this in the European Union, for example, and we
also see it in the German and many other parliaments. If women can claim about 30 % of the mandates
for themselves they can introduce other politicians to specific issues and they can also introduce
the context. You cannot shape politics in a one-dimensional way. You have to look at
it as a package, especially in the area of foreign aid or the reconstruction of war zones
like Sudan, for example. We need more women in power. Remarkably enough, we have seen
women more often lately in the position of secretary of state in the U.S. but Hillary
of course also needs backing, which needs to come from Congress. But we haven’t reached
the critical mass of 30 % there yet and therefore it is difficult for her to push through aid
programs for women. We can only hope that other people, who have been in government
for a long time, slowly realize that it is important to coordinate up to three, four,
five different programs to ensure that women are really covered.