Margherita von Brentano Prize: Award for strong women!

Margherita von Brentano Prize: Award for strong women!

On March 9, 2025, the Free University of Berlin announced the awarding of the prestigious Margherita von Brentano Prize. This equivalent prize, which has been awarded every two years since 1995, honors outstanding achievements in the field of gender studies and equality. With prize money of 15,000 euros, it is the most valuable award for gender studies and women's projects in Germany. Applications and suggestions can be submitted electronically to the Margherita von Brentano Center by April 15, 2025. The award ceremony is planned for autumn 2025 fu-berlin.de reported.

The award was first presented in 1995 and has resulted in numerous award-winning projects that deal intensively with the advancement of women and gender-specific research. The previous award winners include, for example, the database project “Feminicide Map” from 2021, which documents homicides against women and girls, and the “Medical Students for Choice” initiative, which campaigns for the right to sexual self-determination. Over the years, the prize has featured a wide range of topics, ranging from historical research to women's movements to current social challenges. You can find out more about the award winners on the page Wikipedia be experienced.

Margherita of Brentano and her legacy

The prize is named after the philosophy professor and feminist Margherita von Brentano, who received her doctorate under Martin Heidegger in 1948 and became the first woman professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the Free University in 1971. In addition, from 1970 to 1971 she was the first woman to serve on the university's executive board. From the 1960s onwards, von Brentano campaigned for professional equality for women at universities and was committed to remembering the victims of the Holocaust until her death in 1995. Her work laid the foundation for today's awareness of gender studies and equality at universities uni-bielefeld.de is mentioned.

The Margherita von Brentano Prize shows continuous progress in the perception of gender studies. This discipline has evolved greatly since the first women's movement that began in the late 19th century. Issues such as inequality in pay or the social situation of women are still central. These insights are based on the works of important authors such as Alice Salomon and Marie Baum, who gave a decisive impulse to the social and political reform movement.

The social context

Gender studies have been institutionalized since the 1970s and have developed into an inter- and transdisciplinary science. They not only analyze the living conditions and challenges of women, but also deal with masculinity research and the social construction of gender. There are now over 100 professorships for women's and gender studies at German universities, with new perspectives and critical approaches increasingly coming to the fore.

The repeated recognition of institutions and initiatives shows that the commitment to equality and gender justice remains urgent. The Margherita von Brentano Prize remains an important incentive to emphasize the importance of gender studies and to advance engagement with these topics in science and society.