First Women's Place in Saxony
Chemnitz women's initiatives win call from the Saxony Women's Council
The City of Chemnitz's Equal Opportunities Officer has announced that the Chemnitz women's initiatives have won the Saxony Women's Council's call to find the first FrauenOrt. Proposals for a preferred location could be submitted until 30 April 2016. The advisory board of the State Women's Council of Saxony has now decided in favour of the proposal from Chemnitz. The Chemnitz women's initiatives have chosen Minna Simon for the first Women's Place in the city.
The Women's Places project aims to honour strong women and their life's work as historical role models. While the project is already running successfully in Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and Brandenburg, the first FrauenOrte will now also be established in Saxony.
The aim is to make important women of the past visible and thus accessible to the present. Steles or plaques at the places where these women worked are intended to draw attention to their activities. The information boards not only inform people interested in history about the work of the respective woman. They are also intended to provide an opportunity to take a critical look at gender roles.
Minna Simon
The weaver Ernestine Minna Simon was a strike leader in the Chemnitz stock spinning mill in 1883. What was new about this was that it was the first time that female workers had initiated the strike; previously, only men had been active. The strike committee consisted of seven women. Minna Simon must have had extraordinary courage and moral courage, as it was unusual for women to act in this way at the time.
During the course of the year, a plaque commemorating Minna Simon and the strike will be installed at or near the former stock spinning mill. It is being financed by the Saxony Women's Council.
For further information please contact:
Pia Hamann
Equal Opportunities Officer of the City of Chemnitz
Tel: 488 1380
pia.hamann(at)stadt-chemnitz.de