The Legacy of Federal Constitutional Court President Jutta Limbach

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
English Language ◽  
German Language ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Female President

April marked the end of two, intertwined eras at the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG – Federal Constitutional Court). Not only did Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jutta Limbach conclude her distinguished service as the Court's President and the Presiding Justice of the Second Senate; significantly, President Limbach's retirement also marked the end of the tenure of the first female President of the prestigious and powerful Federal Constitutional Court. It is, however, difficult to decide whether it does Ms. Limbach's legacy more honor to refuse to remark the later of these points, treating her tenure as President from a gender-neutral perspective and thereby giving life to the issue of gender-equality that is so important to her. This question is made somewhat less perplexing for an English-language commentator, who must not employ the gendered forms of nouns as required by the German language. While Ms. Limbach served as a Richterin and Präsidentin (the female forms of the German words Richter and Präsident – judge and president) in the German language, in the English language she was simply and fully (fully neutral with respect to gender) Justice and President. Nonetheless, if only at the level of pronouns, the issue persists in the English language as well: does President Limbach's retirement merit reflection as the conclusion of the tenure of a remarkable Jurist and public figure or the conclusion of the tenure of a remarkable female Jurist and public figure?

The Federal Constitutional Court: Fifty Years of the Struggle for Gender Equality

2001 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renate Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Years Of Service ◽  
Looking Back

It has been a long journey from the noble declaration in the Federal Republic's new constitution (Grundgesetz [Basic Law]) that women and men have equal rights, to the establishment of concrete laws and jurisprudence that now assure that women and men actually receive equal treatment and that women are no longer disadvantaged in society (and even more, laws and jurisprudence that assure that women receive support if they encounter structural disadvantages). This article, in looking back on its first fifty years of service, surveys the decisive role that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) played in that journey.

In their own voices: Development of English as a gender-neutral language

English Today ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janina Brutt-Griffler ◽  
Sumi Kim
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Asian Students ◽  
English Learner ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
Neutral Language ◽  
Learning English

This study explores how learning English among one subset of English learners, Asian female international students at US colleges, contributes to the larger project of advancing gender equality. Using their narratives, we ask why Asian female international students invest so much of their identities and effort into learning English. We discuss the ways in which their endeavours may even silently promote the development of English as a gender-neutral language. The population of Asian students offers a compelling case of how the English language is potentially transformed via its spread to this English learner population and how it presents new avenues for identity formation for the growing number of female English users worldwide (cf. Brutt-Griffler, 2010: 232).

scholarly journals Van typiste naar ingenieur?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-269
Author(s):  
Dietha Koster ◽  
Chiara Iding
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Pictorial Representations ◽  
Do So

Abstract Studies on English language learning materials indicate that women are underrepresented and often appear in low-status professions, though gender equality increases within the last decade (Sunderland, 2015). To what degree does this finding apply for textbooks for learners of Dutch as a Second Language (DSL)? To our knowledge, there are no studies into gender and profession in DSL materials. Dutch however, constitutes an interesting case as both female, male and ‘gender neutral’ professional role nouns exist, while their use is not formally regulated. We systematically analyzed textual and pictorial representations of female and male professionals in textbook chapters about work in fifteen DSL textbooks published within the last 50 years. We drew on quantitative (e.g., number of fe/male and ‘gender neutral’ professional names; instances of male generics and firstness; number of depicted wo/men) and qualitative (e.g., nature of the most frequent professional names; categorization of textbook images) methods to do so. Results show that women are not underrepresented in dialogues and pictures, but that dialogue themes are unequally divided over women and men. Moreover, women are backgrounded through male generics and male firstness and female professional names appear less frequently than male names. Women are also described in gender typical roles, whereas men are not. This holds for both older (1974–2009) and recent textbooks (2011–2017). Overall, more ‘gender neutral’ nouns refer to men in the corpus, but they are used more frequently to refer to women within the last decade. Future studies should address the present theme from psycholinguistic and classroom discourse perspectives and consider additional analytical domains (e.g. chapters about family) and foci (e.g. analyses of verbs associated with wo/men). We discuss pedagogical implications (e.g., screen materials for male firstness; describe women in a greater variety of roles; reverse gender roles in class) for those with concern for gender equality in language education.

The German Federal Constitutional Court

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Jestaedt ◽  
Oliver Lepsius ◽  
Christoph Möllers ◽  
Christoph Schönberger
Keyword(s):  
German Language ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Judicial Reasoning ◽  
German Federal Constitutional Court ◽  
German Federal Constitutional

This translation into English of the leading German-language work on the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) gives an overview of both the Court’s history and its role as one of the most influential constitutional courts in recent years. The book consists of four extended, free-standing chapters, each written by one of the authors. In turn, these four chapters cover the historical development and political context of the Court; the Court and its relationship to the constitution; the Court’s approach to judicial reasoning and to the setting of legal standards; and the legitimacy of the Court in contemporary constitutional theory.

The Impact of Anglicizing Former German-Language Psychology Journals on Authorship and Citation Frequencies

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Krampen ◽  
Thomas Huckert ◽  
Gabriel Schui
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
English Language ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
German Language ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Number Of Authors

Exemplary for other than English-language psychology journals, the impact of recent Anglicization of five former German-language psychology journals on (1) authorship (nationality, i.e., native language, and number of authors, i.e., single or multiple authorships), (2) formal characteristics of the journal (number of articles per volume and length of articles), and (3) number of citations of the articles in other journal articles, the language of the citing publications, and the impact factors (IF) is analyzed. Scientometric data on these variables are gathered for all articles published in the four years before anglicizing and in the four years after anglicizing the same journal. Results reveal rather quick changes: Citations per year since original articles’ publication increase significantly, and the IF of the journals go up markedly. Frequencies of citing in German-language journals decrease, citing in English-language journals increase significantly after the Anglicization of former German-language psychology journals, and there is a general trend of increasing citations in other languages as well. Side effects of anglicizing former German-language psychology journals include the publication of shorter papers, their availability to a more international authorship, and a slight, but significant increase in multiple authorships.

Better Late than Never: Lessons from S V Jordan in Strengthening Women’s Participation in Litigation

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 505-518
Author(s):  
Amanda Spies
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
South African ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Amicus Curiae ◽  
The South ◽  
Women's Participation

In 2002 the South African Constitutional Court rejected the decriminalisation of sex work and for many years the judgment has constricted further debate on the topic. In 2013 organisations such as the Commission for Gender Equality have again publicly committed themselves toward lobbying for the decriminalisation of sex work. The renewed debate has necessitated a reconsideration of the Court’s decision in S v Jordan and this article focuses on the organisations that participated as amicus curiae in the matter. The discussion highlights the importance of organisational participation in litigation and how this participation could provide the context in which to consider future debates on the topic. 

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