Women who migrated from, to, and within Germany - interdisciplinary approaches taking into account the category experience 1918-2918

Presently, of roughly 70 million refugees worldwide, almost 50 percent are women. One reason among others is that the human rights of girls and women are severely violated in many countries of the world. Women fled and flee, therefore, not only for reasons of political, ethnical or religios persecution, but also because of women-specific persecution. The latter has many forms. It can be ascribed to religious convictions or tradition-related ideas and often aims to deny women a self-determined life.

The research project, designed by Francesca Weil, consistently follows a gender approach which relates women and men to each other and to the respective social realities. The causes and motives of flight, womens' situations in their countries of origin, the experiences during their fleeing, the integration into the countries of arrival, and the behaviour of host societies will be examined in detail.

It is certain that considerable gender-specific differences existed and exist regarding reasons, conditions and experiences of flight, as well as the granting of asylum and advantages and obstacles in integration. They were and are closely tied to gender roles and the expectations connected to them. Nevertheless, women who fled should not merely be perceived as victims, but first and foremost as thinking, acting, participating and experiencing actors of their environment.