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Google Doodle honours Hedwig Dohm – German author, feminist, gender equality advocate

The Google Doodle is celebrating the 192nd birthday of German author Hedwig Dohm. She was an early feminist and a…

Google Doodle honours Hedwig Dohm – German author, feminist, gender equality advocate

The Google Doodle is celebrating the 192nd birthday of German author Hedwig Dohm. She was an early feminist and a fervent supporter of gender equality.

On September 20, 1831, Hedwig Dohm was born in Berlin, Germany, into a big family of eighteen siblings. She’d always been passionate about reading and had a great time in school. When she was just fifteen, her parents decided to discontinue her official schooling because she needed to help with home duties. But she persuaded her parents to let her enroll in Lehrerinnenseminar, a women’s teachers’ college, because she was determined to keep learning.

In 1853, Dohm wed Kladderadatsch, the leader of the satirical weekly newspaper. They had extensive conversations on politics and art, and her spouse was very supportive of her desire to write. She gave birth to five children over the years, four of whom were daughters. She committed herself to raising her children throughout these formative years of motherhood, working to provide them the possibilities she had not been given. Her house developed become a well-liked hangout for Berlin’s intellectuals and artists.

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When her children reached adulthood in the early 1870s, Dohm made the decision to pursue a career as a writer. She wrote her first piece in response to conservative literature that argued against women going to college, “Was die Pastoren von den Frauen denken” (What the Clergy Thinks About Women).

Her works, such as “Die Antifeministen” (The Antifeminists), which examined those who opposed women’s rights, helped her become well-known. Dohm was one of the few German feminists who spoke up for women’s voting rights at this time. She went on to create several books, including “Sibilla Dalmar,” “Schicksale einer Seele,” and “Christa Rolan,” many of which dealt with the struggles of modern women in opposition to patriarchal civilizations.

She helped draft the first few chapters of the Deutsche Frauenverein Reform and created it in 1888. This programme promoted equal access for women to all university courses. Dohm is lauded for her art’s astute social critique. Hedwig Dohm’s Google Doodle covers the entire country of Germany.

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