Danube Women’s Stories focus on women from countries along the Danube, women from the past and present. Particularly, the project aims at connecting young women from the Danube region by bringing together the knowledge concerning the significance of women from different cities along the Danube. Together women go on a journey of discovery, to recognize the contributions of women, discuss gender issues and use an opportunity to reflect on their own social roles. The influence and impact of women in their cities should be made visible and should support the Gender Equality Strategy of the European Union.
In the first Project Danube Women City Guides we took a look at women from Budapest, Novi Sad, Timisoara, Ulm and Vienna. Beside an exhibition in Ulm during the Danube Festival 2018, we published a book and a create a website to present interesting female figures. There are female artists, scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, members of the resistance movement, athletes or politicians; they are well known or still unknown but always an important part of our societies.
With the new project Danube Women’s Media Stories, new portraits of fascinating women from the past and remarkable women from the present from the cities of Regensburg, Linz and Vukovar have been paid attention to. During the IInterreg conference in Regensburg in May 2019, the exhibition “Danube Women’s Stories” was presented at the World Heritage Visitor Centre. Also, portraits of women from each of the new selected cities have been added to the exhibition, e.g. the entrepreneur Luise Händlmaier which is famous for the sweet mustard (Regensburg), Katharina Kepler as mother and facilitator of Johannes Kepler (Linz) and Ljiljana Gehrecke who was one of the founders of the European House of Vukovar.
On the top of the 6th Danube Participation Day we organized a partner meeting to discuss the future activities. It was also a good place to present the project at the Participation Day and to meet other members of the Danube Civil Society Forum. In the future project period the exhibition “Danube Women’s Stories” should be presented also in other localities along the Danube and the book will be released anew in its extended version. In addition we are developing a Media Story to bring this important topic also to young people via social media. These projects are founded by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, the city of Ulm and Förderkreis ZAWiW. ( Source: Belinda Hoffmann-Schmalek and Markus Marquard)