Staging emancipation and its limits: East German cultural diplomacy, the German Democratic Women's League, and the 1975 World Congress of Women in East Berlin.

This article explores the cultural diplomacy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) at the World Congress of Women in October 1975 in East Berlin. Organized by the Women's International Democratic Federation to celebrate the UN International Women's Year, the congress provided a space for communist...

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Publicado en:Women's History Review Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 8 - 27
Autor principal: Börgerding, Lea
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Feb2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Staging emancipation and its limits: East German cultural diplomacy, the German Democratic Women's League, and the 1975 World Congress of Women in East Berlin.
      aug:
        au: Börgerding, Lea
        affil: Global History Division, Free University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
      su:
        Cultural diplomacy
        Liberty
        Socialism
        Women's International Democratic Federation
        Feminism
        Germany (East)
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          Germany (East)
          Cultural diplomacy
          Liberty
          Socialism
          Women's International Democratic Federation
          Feminism
      keyword:
        cultural diplomacy
        GDR
        global socialism
        International women's year
        women's international democratic federation (WIDF)
      ab: This article explores the cultural diplomacy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) at the World Congress of Women in October 1975 in East Berlin. Organized by the Women's International Democratic Federation to celebrate the UN International Women's Year, the congress provided a space for communist and leftist advocates from across the globe to discuss women's rights in connection with issues like global economic justice, anti-colonialism, and peace. But it also gave its host, the GDR, a platform to promote its emancipatory policies to women from the Global South. For weeks, delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America visited concerts, museums, and art exhibitions on women's lives and took trips to neighbourhoods, kindergartens, schools, women's advice centres, and hospitals across the GDR. Building on research on the performative dimensions of international diplomacy, this article discusses how the socialist regime transformed the congress halls, the city of East Berlin, and public institutions into 'diplomatic stages'. It argues that while this performance was challenged by audiences like foreign journalists, Western delegates, and citizens, its success depended on the Demokratische Frauenbund Deutschlands (German Democratic Women's League), the GDR's mass women's organisation, and its networks to the international women's movement.
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