Association passes the baton on to the University of Bremen Foundation

The association FEAV – Bremer Frauen- Erwerbs- und Ausbildungsverein – is closing down. Its mission, though, will live on. In future, its century-and-a-half tradition will be continued under the umbrella of the University of Bremen Foundation.

The association’s assets will be passed on to the Foundation on January 1, 2019. On May 2, 2018, a signing ceremony took place on the association’s premises in downtown Bremen. “We want to say a public farewell and thank everyone who has supported us in our work,” said the chairwoman of the association, Giesela Hüller, at the official ceremony in the Carl-Ronning-Strasse 2. “Now we would like to pass on the baton to the Foundation of the University of Bremen – an institution known for promoting equality of opportunity in the sense of gender equity by promoting women in education and science,” said Hüller.

“…a major objective of our University”

“We thank you for the trust that you as association members are putting in the University of Bremen,” reciprocated the chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Bremen Foundation and University President, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter. “You have decided to look ahead and to uphold the association’s tradition in a more up-to-date and far-sighted form as well as on a new academic level. Gender equity is a major objective of our University and we do a lot for it.”

Targeted gender mainstreaming

Gender equity is not only relevant as a research topic: It has been a key objective of the University of Bremen for more than 20 years. In the realm of science and academia, women should take active part and have the same opportunities as men. The University achieves this through the targeted promotion of women and various regulations. The University of Bremen has been certified as a family-friendly university since 2007, not least because it proactively helps its students and employees who have children or care obligations to reconcile family life with studying and work.

Senator: “…the University will continue in the steps of the women who founded the association”

“Although at first glance the dissolution of such a traditional association as the Women's Employment and Vocational Training Association Bremen might seem a shame, the good thing is that its services should no longer be required,” said Bremen’s Senator for Science Professor Eva Quante-Brandt. “But we can be sure that going forward the University will continue in the steps of the women who founded the association but in the more contemporary areas of research, teaching and administration.”

Cutoff date is January 1, 2019

The assets of the Women's Employment and Training Association Bremen will be transferred to the Foundation of the University of Bremen on January 1, 2019. It includes, among other things, the listed building belonging to the association in the Carl-Ronning-Strasse 2. The proceeds from the assets will go towards funding projects at the University of Bremen that accord with the old association’s purpose.

About the University of Bremen Foundation

The University of Bremen Foundation emerged in 2009 from the “unifreunde Foundation” and has been growing ever since. Specifically, it wants to contribute to the development of future-oriented research fields at the University of Bremen, enable new approaches in teaching, promote early career researchers, and advance the communication of science to the public.
It gives private individuals, foundations, societies, associations and companies the opportunity for long-term and sustainable engagement in the promotion of research and teaching in Bremen – either by donation, bequeathal or setting up a trustee foundation.

About the Women's Employment and Training Association Bremen

Following a call for action issued by the General German Women's Association in Leipzig in 1866, organizations were set up in other parts of Germany with the aim of increasing the social awareness of women’s rights to education and vocational training. They should create opportunities to implement these goals – in Bremen, too. The names of Ottilie Hoffmann, Marie Mindermann, August and Mathilde Lammers as well as Lucie Lindhorn stand for the founding of the “Association for the Extension of the Female Work Area”, which later became the Women's Employment and Vocational Training Association.The creation of appropriate training and employment opportunities as well as demands for political and civil equal rights formed the mainspring of the association. It was necessary to clear away the obstacles that stood in the way of these goals. In its 150-year history, the association has always moved with the times to meet the corresponding social needs as well as the specific life situation of women.

More information under:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/stiftung
www.feav-bremen.de (in German only)
www.uni-bremen.de(en