Concepts of Female Empowerment

Feminist terms explained briefly

Words like “gender”, “male-gaze” and also “slutshaming” are currently dominating the feminism and gender discourse. As many of these words are English-language or neologisms, we totally understand that this can sometimes be confusing. However, it is important to engage with these terms. This way you can share your own experiences and understand other women* better. That’s why we have created a list where we explain some of the terms to you. This list is not complete, so please feel free to contact us if you have any comments or updates.

Body Positivity
The movement advocates that every woman* and every man* should stand by his/her body. The aim is to abolish unrealistic and discriminatory ideals of beauty.

Body Shaming
Corresponds to the opposite of body positivity: body shaming is the discrimination, insulting and judging of people based on their external appearance.

Catcalling
Catcalling is a type of harassment by strangers in the form of unwanted comments toward people who are seen as sexual objects.

Cisgender / Zisgender; short cis
People whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth are referred to as cisgender.

Empowerment
Empowerment is the increase of self-empowerment and self-determination in all areas of people through strategies and actions.

Female Gaze
The Female Gaze describes the view from a female perspective without regard to the cis-male perspective.

Female Empowerment
There are many definitions of this. For us, it is the struggle for freedom, equal opportunities and equal rights for women*.

Feminismus
Feminism is a social movement that strives for self-determination, freedom and equality for all people.

FLINT
The acronym FLINT stands for women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary and trans people.

Women’s quota
The women’s quota stipulates that a certain minimum proportion of women* must be represented in bodies. The quota aims to achieve equality between women* and men* in society, politics, the economy and culture.

Gender
The term gender describes the social, the lived sex of a person. This can differ from the biological sex of the person.

Gender
Gender stands for the biological sex, the one you were born with.

Gender Pay Gap
The wage gap describes the difference between the average gross hourly wage of women* and men*. Women* are often paid less than men* for the same work.

Gender star
The gender asterisk is often used as a means of gender-equitable spelling in order to make it visible that other genders (identities) are meant in addition to male and female. Example: doctors; pupils; participants.
The asterisk after woman* and man* stands for the fact that all persons are included who define themselves under the designation “woman” or “man”, are defined and/or see themselves made visible.

Hepeating
Hepeating stands for the situation when what a woman* says is not heard, but when a man* repeats it later, it is listened to and considered important.

Homosexuality
Sexual orientation is when one feels attracted to a person of one’s own sex.

Intersexuality
People who cannot be clearly assigned to the female or male gender are called intersexual.

LGBTQIA+
The acronym LGBTQIA+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and asexual people. The + at the end stands for all persons who do not feel they belong to any or several of the categories.

Male Gaze
The Male Gaze is the active-male dominant gaze of society, which sees women* as sexual objects for the pleasure of heterosexual men*.

Mansplaining
Mansplaining is when men* condescendingly explain something to their female interlocutors.

Me too
The hashtag #MeToo gives women*, but also men*, the opportunity to share their stories of sexual harassment or abuse (via social media).

Privilege
The advantages of certain groups, which come about through social influences, are referred to as privilege.

Queer
The word queer refers to things, actions and people that deviate from societal cis-heteronormativity through or as an expression of a sexual or gender identity.

Sexism
Social gender discrimination is sexist and relies on stereotypes, cultural elements and attitudes.

Slut-shaming
Slutshaming refers to the attack and devaluation of women* who contradict the behavior or external appearance expected by society.

Transgender
People whose physical sex does not correspond to their social sex are called transgender.

Victim Blaming
Perpetrator-victim reversal describes the procedure of blaming the victim for a (sexual) assault. Reasons for this are, for example, too short clothing, alcohol or drug influence.