Female Fundamental Freedoms

doi:10.1628/978-3-16-200598-4

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Female Fundamental Freedoms

Reproduktive Freiheit und fundamentale gesellschaftliche Gleichheit

Edited by Josephine Astfalk, Eva Julia Lohse and Antonia Stummvoll

[Female Fundamental Freedoms. Reproductive Freedom and Fundamental Social Equality.]

2026. 250 pages.

forthcoming in September 2026

DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-200598-4

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Summary

How can fundamental rights be understood from a feminist perspective? To what extent does the law support feminist demands, and where does it stand in their way? The volume presents approaches to shaping legal equality, ranging up to a fundamental discussion of how the law (re)constructs womanhood.

In recent decades, doctrinal, theoretical, and sociological legal research on women's rights - as well as, more broadly, on law and gender from an intersectional perspective - has increasingly come into focus. The requirements of protection, the scope for action, and the equality of women, as well as the legal conceptualization of womanhood, are the subject of intense debate, with differing emphases across legal systems. Time and again, these fundamental rights to freedom and equality have been denied, and they are currently being questioned worldwide, particularly by illiberal and authoritarian regimes. Against this backdrop, the volume brings together current research topics on women's fundamental rights: their theoretical reconstruction, their doctrinal implementation, their enforcement in different legal contexts, and their intersectional dimensions. The contributions are organized into four thematic sections and stem from the legal conference »Female Fundamental Freedoms,« held in November 2025 as a symposium of the Research Center for Fundamental Rights at the University of Bayreuth. The aim is not to provide a comprehensive account of this complex discourse, but rather to offer impulses for reflection on key contemporary questions of Female Fundamental Freedoms and to encourage further inquiry.
The volume first explores the historical and theoretical foundations of fundamental rights from a feminist and intersectional perspective. It then addresses the fundamental question of womanhood as a legal category and as a point of reference for fundamental rights, drawing on selected examples from current debates. Third, it examines fundamental issues of equality in the workplace, with particular attention to experiences of intersectional discrimination. Finally, it highlights key aspects of the far-reaching legal field of reproductive rights and situates them within an international context.

Table of contents:

Einleitende Worte
Eva Julia Lohse/Josephine Astfalk/Antonia Stummvoll: Einleitende Worte - Carsten Bäcker: Geleitwort des Direktors der Forschungsstelle für Fundamentale Rechte - Geleitworte von Bundesverfassungsrichter Heinrich Amadeus Wolff
I. Historische und theoretische Hintergründe
Bernd Kannowski: Fundamental Female Freedoms in der neueren Verfassungsgeschichte - Melina Reyher: Soziale Dialektik der Autonomie? Zur relationalen Dimension der Selbstbestimmung in Grundrechtstheorie und -dogmatik
II. Frausein als Anknüpfungspunkt für fundamentale Rechte
Eva Julia Lohse: When is a woman a woman? Comparative reflections on the meaning of „sex" and „woman" as defined in the UK Supreme Court decision „For Women Scotland Ltd. vs The Scottish Ministers", [2025] UKSC 16 - Isabelle Zundel/Ian Nyboma: Navigating Transgender Rights in Kenya: Strategic Litigation and the Legacies of Coloniality - Josephine Astfalk: Climate Change Litigation vor dem EGMR - ein feministischer Blick auf die Rügemöglichkeit intersektionaler Diskriminierungspotenziale im Rahmen von Klimaklagen - Paulina Böhm/Antonia Stummvoll: Der Schutz von Frauen vor dem verpflichtenden Wehrdienst. Auslegungsprobleme des Artikel 12a Absatz 4 Grundgesetz
III. Fundamentale Gleichheitsfragen im Beruf
Yağmur Özkan: Antimuslimischer Rassismus und Sexismus. Intersektionale Blindstellen im Recht? - Teresa Weber: Sorgearbeit, Migration und Recht: Schutzlücken und Rechtswirklichkeit im Zusammenhang mit der 24-Stunden-Betreuung in Österreich - Anne Zeilmann: Frauen im Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Unabhängigkeit und Misogynie. Ein Bericht aus dem feministischen Arbeitsrecht
IV. Perspektiven auf reproduktive Rechte
Dana-Sophia Valentiner: Das Recht auf reproduktive Selbstbestimmung: Gewährleistung reproduktiver Freiheiten und staatliche Schutzpflichten - Anna Lippert/Felix Ruppert: Strafrecht statt Selbstbestimmung? Female Fundamental Freedoms und § 218 StGB - Maria Lucila Tuñón Corti: Die Entkriminalisierung des Schwangerschaftsabbruchs in Argentinien. Zur strafrechtsdogmatischen Analyse - Ewa Michałkiewicz-Kądziela: The Right to Abortion? Women's Reproductive Rights from the Perspective of the European Court of Human Rights - Natasha Koessl/Melina Lang: Sistersong Women of Color Justice Collective v. State of Georgia. Ein Bericht

Authors/Editors

Josephine Astfalk is research associate at the Chair of Public Law, European Law, Environmental Law and Comparative Law (ÖR III) at the University of Bayreuth.

https://orcid.org/0009000339284362

Eva Julia Lohse is professor of public, environmental, European and comparative law and the Faculty Equal Opportunities Officer at the University of Bayreuth.

https://orcid.org/0000000237790515

Antonia Stummvoll is research associate at the Chair of Public Law, Constitutional Theory and Legal Philosophy (ÖR IV) at the University of Bayreuth.

https://orcid.org/0009000795957831