War is always a backlash for women’s causes. But their role is also underestimated, says historian Hedwig Richter: They are the engine of democratic change.
BRIGITTE: Since the beginning of Putin’s attacks, one often feels as if one has been transported back 100 years: On the one hand, there are the male heroes who are fighting in Kyiv, while mothers and children are fleeing in desperation – and there are generals on German talk shows. A social backlash?
HEDWIG RICHTER: War and violence are appalling and always a setback for feminism, often on all sides. However, I am confident that we will not permanently reverse freedom and equality. We are not blindly at the mercy of fate, but have a lot in our own hands.
In what way?
This becomes clear when looking at the gender order, which can only be changed with great effort. After the end of the German Empire in 1918, women were given the right to vote they had fought for for decades, plus better access to education and work. That was progressive. The National Socialists ensured a return to a martial masculinity, women were pushed out of public life. And after they had taken on almost all the men’s tasks themselves during the war and in the immediate post-war period, the 1950s came with their ideal image of the housewife marriage. But bit by bit the openness of our society has grown, democracy has gained strength. Putin is attacking precisely this peace order: freedom, equality, diversity. And with that, the awareness grows that it is worth defending these values.
If necessary also violently? Women fight in Ukraine too.
A discussion that is as old as feminism itself. One current says: same rights, same duties, that is, also to take up arms like men. The other current argues: For whatever reason, women are the more peaceful people and therefore need more power to find bloodless solutions. I don’t have a simple answer to this question myself. What can be said, however, is that women have always been an engine of peaceful transformation.
What are you up to?
Studies use many examples to show that when a society becomes democratized, it is more sustainable and lasting if it comes from civil society and not from a small group that violently enforces its goals. And peaceful transitions always involve more women than violent ones. Their role is always underestimated because they are not so heroically staged and violent. Take the 1968 movement – images of men throwing stones are dominant, while women pushed through social changes with little glory, more equality, non-violent upbringing, rights to self-determination. Internationally, too, democratic change is often driven by women, for example in Belarus or in Afghanistan. Even if the situation is terrible at the moment, I don’t think it can be suppressed in the long run.
What about the women on the Russian side?
I am not a Russia expert. But here too we see many women involved in the protests. Authoritarian regimes like in Syria, Belarus and now Russia are misogynous and homophobic. And they strike with full force because they know that their hour has come. Because democracy, human dignity, is so attractive to everyone, spiritually and materially, it has a great appeal to the populations of these countries. There is much to suggest that this way of life will prevail in the end. And we have the women to thank for that.
In view of all the suffering, are you even allowed to ask anything like gender issues?
Necessarily! Here it is clear that our civilian reflexes are working and that we have learned our peace lesson. Women’s rights and emancipation touch the core of democratic values: freedom and equality.
Hedwig Richter, 48, is a professor of modern and recent history at the Bundeswehr University in Munich and non-fiction author: “Democracy – a German affair” (400 pages, 26.95 euros, CH Beck).
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