What is the biggest challenge facing women and girls in your country today? Time will tell There is this German saying “Kommt Zeit, kommt Rat.” - Time will tell - but isn’t time the biggest enemy of modern mankind? Doesn’t our history get lost over time, as well as the ideas and believes? Doesn’t history repeat itself, or why did so many wars start because of religion, resources or blank greed? Humans tend to forget the things their ancestors learned. Or maybe they are too lazy and rest on their laurels… Do you really believe you can call the rights in the code of civil law your own? What does equality really mean, and how can we know that we have achieved any kind of balance? I hate to see that there are children in this world that can’t go to school because they are not male. I could cry and scream reading about female genital mutilation and forced marriage. And now here I am writing about German, female problems. Is anybody interested in this topic – these first world problems? I could understand if they aren’t, because I was one of those uninterested ones. Yes, there are more important things in the world, but isn’t it even worse to stop fighting for equality in “advanced” countries and let the momentum die? Every country has its own history. The German history of the 20th century is stained and will always be; however also distinguished events mark this century. After World War 2 Germany was literally ruins, though the people knew they had to carry on with their lives. Mostly women started to clean up the streets, and are nowadays known as the “Trümmerfrauen” – ruin women. After being brainwashed, losing almost everything they had, these women started to rebuild Germany with their bare hands and feet. I am not proud of the German history and actually was quite ashamed of it, when I learned about the Nazi-Germany at school. But it’s not my fault what my ancestors did - I just have two responsibilities: never forget, and watch out that something this vicious will never happen again. Knowing this, I am wondering why history is still repeating itself... Of course we have better technologies and access to the World Wide Web with all its knowledge and opportunities. However it seems like many people do not trust science and the achieved ascent, and hold on to outdated and anti-feminist traditions. I believe that many people do not understand what feminism truly means. People mistake equality with “proportion of women”, and it’s just a matter of fact that mankind repulses the idea of this so called “equality”. Equality means to me that a woman can become the general manager because she is best suited for this job, and not because she is female. Also in my opinion no male kindergarten teacher should be ridicule or getting weird looks just because he is doing a “female job”, working with small children as a man. Why are these gender images pushed on us since the day of our birth? There shouldn’t be a color, a special sport, hobbies or clothes that represent a gender! A lot of young women in Germany believe they possess the same rights as men. Maybe they do on the paper, but to me the reality and especially the mindset looks different. As far as I can see there is still room for improvement. True equality benefits all gender! That’s why especially German girls and women shouldn’t forget what the “Trümmerfrauen” rebuilt in Germany years ago. We take the rights wearing trousers, being able to have jobs and making a career for granted. Only hundreds of years ago it was abnormal for a woman to be interested in science or to speak up for herself. So don’t wait and hope time will tell! And please, do not ridicule feminism if you do not know the true significance of it!