Kristina Hackmann

The international conference with around 120 national and international participants and speakers from countries including Great Britain, India, Jordan, Nepal, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Hungary and Yemen was organised by the newly founded Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG) at the CvO University of Oldenburg. The starting point for planning the conference was the observation that women's and gender studies are now established as academic study programmes in numerous countries. However, the conditions under which this has been achieved, as well as the content and curricula, methods and objectives, are very different. International communication and co-operation between study programmes, students, academics, activists and experts was defined as a central task for the future of Women's and Gender Studies - a 'global networking' that requires the systematic inclusion of non-Western perspectives at all levels of research, teaching and curriculum development. Against this background, the speakers presented internal views of their study programmes: Contents and curricula, teaching methods and objectives. In addition, the questions of what influence social developments and transitions have on the programmes and what new forms of international networking and co-operation could look like and how they could be implemented were discussed.

The opening lecture by Gabriele Griffin (Kingston University, UK) outlined the history and current field of Women and Gender Studies Worldwide. She argued that there is a correlation between the type of institution (NGOs, universities, co-funded institutions) in which Women's Studies is taught and the type of programmes they offer: while many programmes in the north-western hemisphere are subject to a kind of 'cultural turn', many institutions in southern and eastern countries tend to aim at training and educating a new administrative and professional class so that they can act as 'catalysts for change'. According to Griffin, these differences and their implications raise questions of co-option versus transformation, academisation versus activism, in relation to the problems and opportunities of institutionalising women's studies. In conclusion, Griffin assessed the global future prospects for the field as excellent, now that 'gender' has become a key category of international politics. The field of Women's Studies enables women to become active and effective in contexts in which the image of women is still portrayed as a sisterhood (e.g. by the World Bank), which is characterised by disadvantage and a profound lack of influence.

The speakers then presented various academic and non-academic programmes and approaches and provided information on the situation of women in the respective countries and regions. Anne Phillips (London School of Economics & Political Science, UK) argued in her contribution that 'gender neutrality' should not be equated with 'gender equality', as this equation harbours the danger of economic equality disappearing from the Charter as a social goal. Instead, gender studies should continue to pursue the distribution of income and wealth as central themes.

In the course of the discussions at the conference, it became clear that the gap between the different approaches in the different regions of the world identified by Griffin is not easy to bridge. While theoretical approaches of the north-western academic world are to a large extent well known in the south-eastern world, but are hardly considered useful for their own programmes, the knowledge of north-western experts about theoretical discussions and practical conditions in other regions is far less. Accordingly, an understanding of the differences must first be based on a self-presentation of one's own positions before dialogues and possibilities for co-operation can be shaped. Prospects were seen in the joint consideration of methodological and epistemological approaches, in the development of joint course programmes and teaching, in joint research projects and systematic exchange programmes for students and academics, especially young female academics.

The development of cooperation obviously needs time and continuity, and the Oldenburg conference has created an excellent basis for this. After last year's successful excursion week as part of the International Women's University, Oldenburg once again succeeded in creating a stimulating and friendly working and communication atmosphere that has already been able to draw on continuities as well as create new ones: For example, the contacts with the speakers from Nepal and India were, among other things The advisor Sheila Meintjes from South Africa (University of the Witwaterstrand, Johannesburg) represented the International Visiting Professorship of Women's and Gender Studies at the ZFG in Oldenburg at the time of the conference; Puspa Ghimire-Niraula (Thribuvan University, Kathmandu) extended her stay in Oldenburg as a visiting scholar and gave lectures at the Universities of Oldenburg and Bremen on the topic of 'Globalisation and its Impact on Women's Work - Focus Nepal'; the Oldenburg Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies concluded cooperation agreements with Aden University/ Yemen and Thribuvan University/ Kathmandu, Nepal; cooperation agreements were prepared with the University of Jordan/ Amman, Jordan, the University of Canterbury/ Christ Church, New Zealand and the Central European University/ Budapest, Hungary.

Two follow-up conferences are planned: A conference on 'Globalisation, Women's Work, Sustainability' in October 2003 together with CCS Haryana Agricultural University/ Hisar, India and a conference on 'Women's Perceptions of Themselves and Others' in Amman.

Kristina Hackmann, born in 1971, studied to become a teacher (German, politics, subject teaching, education and social sciences) at the University of Bremen and Middlesex University London, specialising in learning workshop research, reform pedagogy, sexuality research and girls' work. Student assistant on the study 'Self-perception, sexual knowledge and body image of 9-13 year old girls and boys' (Petra Milhoffer). Currently completing her dissertation on "Female adolescence and the confrontation with bisexuality and the norm of heterosexuality" (Karin Flaake, CvO University of Oldenburg). Current research interests: Qualitative social research, gender studies, adolescence research, university didactics. Publications include: 1999: "Modern Girls + Black Outs = Girlpower: Readings on adolescent girls' discussions about gender and the norm of heterosexuality", www.skk.uit.no/WW99/papers/Hackmann_Kristina.pdf [30.09.01]

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