Workshop “18 biographies of iconic women in history and the present”

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Switzerland, Roman Kroke designed and implemented a training workshop for the BEJUNE University of Teacher Education (Biel/CH). For four days, around 60 students (future primary, lower secondary and upper secondary teachers) explored the concept of the workshop through 18 women’s biographies, icons of history and the present, of diverse geographical, cultural and social origins, e.g.. : the social worker Leymah Gbowee, the astronaut Mae Jemison, the lawyer Jesselyn Radack, the war reporter Gerda Taro, the queen of Ndongo and Matamba Nzinga, the warrior and shaman Lozen, the “woman with a beard” Clémentine Delait, the bandit queen Phulan Devi, the explorer Delia Akeley, the spiritual figure Ama (Mata Amritanandamayi), the track and field athlete Cheryl Bridges, the rapper Sonita Alizadeh, the volcanologist Katia Krafft, …

The format is not only suitable for middle and high school, but also for primary school by integrating the comic series Culottées by Pénélope Bagieu (2016/17). A survey among educators showed that there is a real need for creative teaching formats to deal with female role models especially at a young student age.