Events Explore Role of Women in German Leadership

The centenary of women’s suffrage in Germany will be marked with several events about women’s suffrage and leadership in Germany presented by the UC Davis College of Letters and Science’s Department of German and Russian on Oct. 22, 23 and 26. 

The events start Oct. 22 with an opening reception for an exhibition on the history of female suffrage in Sproul Hall lobby from noon to 1 p.m. On display through Nov. 8, it will feature posters on the history of women’s right to vote around the world. All posters have been researched and prepared by UC Davis students.

A panel on gender, sovereignty and leadership on Oct. 23 from noon to 2 p.m. in Wright Hall will feature:

• Anke Gilleir, professor of modern German literature, gender and literature and transnational literature at the University of Leuven in Belgium, will speak on “The Gender of Sovereignty.”
• Patricia Anne Simpson, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Nebraska, will give a presentation titled “Sphinxes, divas, and queens? Angela Merkel or the Perils of Governing While Female.”
• Joyce Marie Mushaben, curators’ distinguished professor of comparative politics at the University of Missouri, will present “The Reluctant Feminist: Angela Merkel and the Modernization of Gender Politics in Germany.”

Beverly Weber, associate professor of German studies and Jewish studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, will give a talk titled “Islam and Woman in Germany Today” on Oct. 26 at noon in Sproul Hall, Room 912.

All events, sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, are free and open to the public.

Visit the Department of German and Russian's website for more information.