Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 1979
Abstract
Rape, abortion, homes for battered women—these would appear to be the issues of paramount concern to West German feminists at the present time. But high on the list of priorities for 1978 has also been the question of women's studies, a subject of passionate, often bitter debate in recent months, with sides clearly drawn between proponents of differing allegiances. As in the United States, but with sharp differences, the discussion in West Germany focuses on the relationships among women's studies, the women's movement, and the community.
Activists here have been debating the proposed establishment of a "Women's Research Institute" at the Free University of Berlin. This proposal is opposed by two articulate groups of movement women with alternative projects in hand, the first group consisting of Berlin activists engaged in planning a "Women's Research, Information and Education Center" to exist independently of the university; and the second group, founders of a feminist professional society called "Social Science Research and Praxis for Women, Inc."—the first new nationally-based feminist organization aimed at women employed in social work and teaching.