Neuruppin, 7 March 2024

The Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB) joins the Brandenburg Women’s Weeks for the first time. MHB equality commissioner Georgia Fehler organizes two lectures on health and on insufficient medical care for women respectively as contributions to the scheduled series of events.

Prof. Dr. Svetlana Tchaikovski directs the clinic of gynecology and obstetrics at the university hospital in Brandenburg/Havel. She is going to give a lecture on endometriosis, which may also be followed online, on 12 March. The menopause and all issues involved will be in the focus in Neuruppin on site and online on 13 March, when Susanne Liedtke (entrepreneur and expert in ecotrophology) will give a talk and be available for debate. Georgia Fehler is pleased that the MHB presents these two important topics in the series at two different locations, and is looking forward to the subsequent discussions.  

The Brandenburg Women’s Weeks frame the International Women’s Day on 8 March. The question is who should feel addressed in this context, and why. Many associate this day, defined by the UN General Assembly as International Women’s Day in 1977 and a public holiday in two German states, with presents for moms, girlfriends and wives such as flowers, chocolates or a massage. But what is there to celebrate? Georgia Fehler points to the statistical evidence that women are still worse off than men at all levels, not even including trans persons and other genders: “It will take about another 140 years to achieve effective equality of men and women according to current calculations.”       

The idea behind the Women’s Day is primarily to highlight the persistent imbalance between genders, specifically between men and women, in terms of opportunities and chances over the course of life. The scientific term used in this context is Gender Gaps, which express the differences in concrete figures. As a rule, women are still disadvantaged compared to men. They are underrepresented in leading positions, they assume a higher share of care work, are less involved in research projects and as a consequence less published and less quoted, they receive poorer payment for equal work and must therefore expect lower pension payments. All these aspects constitute factors for higher health burdens, and at the same time women receive poorer healthcare. The Gender Health Gap, so the MHB equality commissioner, illustrates that healthcare for women is of poorer quality since available medical data have been primarily collected by and from males; differentiation in treatment approaches makes more sense since males and females may manifest different symptoms.

The Integrated Working Group Gender and Diversity at the MHB aims to pool and expand expert knowledge to reduce such gaps in available data. Women’s realms of experience need to be integrated in order to close the various gender gaps. The Women’s Day also serves to focus on women as experts at all levels and appreciate their specific perspectives. Georgia Fehler: “The International Women’s Day is meant to increase the general social awareness of women’s still undervalued life worlds, needs and perspectives.”