Women

Severe allergic reactions – healing practice

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The corona vaccine from the manufacturer Moderna hardly causes any severe allergic reactions. According to research, more women than men are allergic to the vaccine. (Image: cherryandbees / stock.adobe.com)

Severe allergic reactions with corona vaccine

After the corona vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer, a vaccine from the US manufacturer Moderna was also approved in Europe a few weeks ago. As with any vaccine, side effects can occur with this one. Serious allergic reactions can also occur – but only in rare cases.

Severe allergic reactions to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine appear to be fairly rare, the U.S. health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said after over four million people received their first dose.

Corona protection

COVID-19 vaccines protect against infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The vaccine from the US company Moderna is the second vaccine to be approved by the EU. The drug has been used for some time in the USA.

According to the CDC, as of January 10, there had been 10 cases of anaphylaxis (allergic shock) in 4.04 million people who had received their first of two required doses of Moderna’s vaccine. In nine cases, the onset of the severe allergic reaction occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination. No anaphylaxis-related deaths were reported.

This is evident from the agency’s weekly report on morbidity and mortality.

According to the CDC, the characteristics of severe allergic reactions to Moderna’s vaccine were similar to BioNTech / Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Ten cases in four million people vaccinated

According to the report, 4,041,396 first doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the U.S. between December 21, 2020 and January 10, 2021.

There have been reports of 1,266 (0.03%) adverse events following receipt of this vaccine. Among these, 108 case reports were identified for further review as possible cases of severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis.

“Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening allergic reaction that rarely occurs after vaccination and typically starts within minutes to hours,” the experts write.

“Of these case reports, 10 cases were diagnosed with anaphylaxis (a rate of 2.5 anaphylaxis per million Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses administered), including nine in people with a documented history of allergies or allergic reactions, five of which had a previous history who had anaphylaxis, ”the report continues.

All cases involved women

“All 10 cases of anaphylaxis reported after receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were women,” said the US Department of Health. Six patients were hospitalized (five of them in the intensive care unit; four of them required ventilation) and four were treated in an emergency room.

While a previous review of anaphylaxis reports found that 80 percent of the cases reported in adults were women, the current finding may have been influenced by more women than men receiving a first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during the analysis period.

In a previous analysis of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, two-thirds of the first doses were given in women. According to initial findings, more women than men reacted allergic to this vaccine.

“The clinical and epidemiological characteristics of reports of anaphylactic shock following administration of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are similar to those following administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” said the experts.

Signs of a severe allergic reaction

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website states that a severe allergic reaction would typically occur within a few minutes to an hour of receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Signs of a severe allergic reaction can include:

  • Difficulty breathing
  • Swelling of the face and neck
  • Fast heartbeat
  • A bad rash all over the body
  • Feeling dizzy and weak

Other possible side effects of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are also listed. These include:

  • Injection site reactions: pain, swelling of the lymph nodes in the same arm as the injection, swelling (hardening) and redness
  • General side effects: fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, chills, nausea, vomiting and fever

These may not be all of the potential side effects of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Unexpected side effects could also occur. (ad)

Author and source information

This text complies with the requirements of specialist medical literature, medical guidelines and current studies and has been checked by medical professionals.

Swell:

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Allergic Reactions Including Anaphylaxis After Receipt of the First Dose of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine — United States, December 21, 2020–January 10, 2021, (veröffentlicht: 22.01.2021), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • Food and Drug Administration: INFORMATION SHEET FOR RECIPIENTS AND CAREGIVERS APPROVAL FOR THE USE IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS (EUA) OF THE MODERNA COVID-19 VACCINE FOR THE PREVENTION AGAINST CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19), available to people from January 24th, 2019 (COVID-19). 2021), Food and Drug Administration

Important NOTE:
This article is for general guidance only and is not intended to be used for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. He can not substitute a visit at the doctor.

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Susanne Kaiser’s book “Political Masculinity”

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Mith a book called “Political Masculinity”, which shows disastrous restorative tendencies in societies increasingly characterized by equality, the momentum is certainly on your side as a publisher. The assault on the Capitol made it clear to even stubborn appeasers that authoritarian, divisive and chauvinistic politics can lead directly to extremism. A guy who dances through the halls with buffalo horns, another who places his boots on the desk of a powerful politician: Here you can see caricatures of traditional images of men trying to regain space that they thought had been lost.

Jörg Thomann

Jörg Thomann

Editor in the “Life” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

The inexhaustible question of what masculinity actually is today and what it could be is not Susanne Kaiser’s topic; she has found enough material in what is now often referred to as “toxic masculinity”. She has gone deep into their abysses and now presents a meticulous representation of dark male milieus, which, if they are not directly connected to one another, nevertheless stimulate one another. You shouldn’t be fooled by strange self-labeling: “Pick-up artists” are neither gallant womanizers nor “Incels”, the “involuntary celibates”, ie people who are involuntary celibate, and harmless nerds. Both groups share the contemptuous view of women – with the difference that some believe that they can get and subjugate everyone, while the other cannot get any and do not forgive women for that.

King of the Incels

The “well-organized network of misogynist actors who act globally” has, according to Kaiser’s analysis, outgrown such angry expectations. For these men, owing to the triumphant advance of feminism, the power relations have reversed: the real oppressors have long been women. By portraying themselves as victims and a strategic minority, men legitimized violence as resistance. It is well known that 90 percent of verbal violence on social media is perpetrated by men. Kaiser rightly regards the reflexive roaring down of female voices on the Internet as “the well-organized work of misogynist trolls and haters”, although not a few freaks in front of the computer are allowed to live out their misogyny in a lonely and unorganized way.


Susanne Kaiser: “Political Masculinity”. How incels, fundamentalists and authoritarians mobilize for patriarchy.
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Image: Suhrkamp Verlag

More and more often, however, verbal violence turns into real. Kaiser refers to a study which found that in a third of the mass shootings in the United States in the past ten years, the perpetrators also harbored misogynistic motives. The “mannosphere” on the Internet is their echo chamber, where they are celebrated by like-minded people. Elliot Rodger is revered as the “King of the Incels”. He killed six people in California in 2014 and targeted women because they denied him “sex, fun and pleasure”; “Going ER” is now an expression of wanting to do the same to Rodger.

What are the solutions?

There are some arguments against it, but also in favor of classifying acts like those of Rodgers as terrorism. As Kaiser points out, many attacks have long followed certain patterns. The comprehensive pamphlet Rodgers, from which Kaiser quoted too extensively, reveals not only a kind of terrorist ideology, but the delusional narcissism and sadism of a person who dreams of locking the majority of women in a concentration camp and them watch starvation from a watchtower. As dangerous as such failed existences can become, patriarchy cannot be built on their shoulders. Only very few misogynists want to instigate a war of annihilation against all women, but all of them want to push back the influence of women.

It is therefore right and important that Kaiser’s book also scrutinizes the reactionary political movements in selected states. She deals in depth with Poland, for example, where nationalists and religious fundamentalists have formed an ominous alliance. Here in particular, however, it is not entirely reliable. Although President Duda was just re-elected in office in the summer of 2020, contrary to Kaiser writes, this was not a re-election of the national-conservative government; In Poland, the president primarily has representative functions, which is why the authoritarian restructuring of Polish society does not come primarily from Duda, but from PiS party leader Kaczyński, whose puppet Duda is considered to be.

If there is anything else to complain about about Kaiser’s meritorious work, then it is – besides the missing register – the fact that it does not offer any solutions for its depressing time diagnosis. But here, too, a look at America may help: As the example of Trump illustrates, with a bit of luck, many a dark man can end up doing himself.

Susanne Kaiser: “Political Masculinity”. How incels, fundamentalists and authoritarians mobilize for patriarchy. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2020. 268 pp., Br., € 18.

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New clues as to why Covid affects men twice as much as women

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It is not the first time that this aspect has been discussed and the statistics are clear: covid kills many more men than women. Why? Some new clues emerge from a recent report, by two scientists from Yale University, which explores the various ways in which immune responses differ between the sexes, with important implications for Covid-19.

Despite the fact that scientists from all over the world have now been wondering about the various characteristics of the new coronavirus for about a year, it is still not clear why mortality from Covid is higher among men.

Advanced age is known to be one of the main risk factors, there is no doubt about this but, for the same years, the mortality among elderly men is double that of women. As they explained Takehiro Takahashi and Akiko Iwasaki, Yale University immunologists, in their article published on Science, the differences between the sexes extend far beyond the sexual organs.

Men and women have a different functioning of the immune system, in general, women have a more effective immune system. For example, they generate more immunity against flu than men after being vaccinated, while men with HIV tend to have a higher viral load than infected women.

An immune force that manifests itself from the first months of life: girls are much more resistant than children to infections but also to wars, famines and other calamities.

What does all this have to do with Covid? It has to do with the fact that the death caused by the coronavirus is not so much due to the presence of the virus as to the dysfunctional reaction of the patient’s body.

A few days after infection, there are people who start producing large amounts of inflammatory proteins which, in theory, should alert the immune system. But sometimes that inflammatory overload, on the contrary, breaks down the defenses. This is the famous cytokine storm which has been talked about so much in recent months, which generates an excess of inflammatory molecules that can aggravate the clinical situation of the infected patient leading to death.

The most interesting thing pointed out by the experts is that the production of these molecules is much more common in men than in women, especially in old age. In addition, older men generate fewer T lymphocytes, which can identify and destroy infected cells.

The general model suggests that there may also be biological factors behind the discrepancy between men and women.

From a biological point of view, a man is characterized by having only one X chromosome, inherited from his mother, and one Y chromosome, from his father, while a woman has two copies of the X chromosome, one from each parent. The X chromosome contains several genes that are essential for the proper functioning of the immune system.

Although only one of its two copies of the X chromosome is normally active, it is not always the same.

“This phenomenon means that roughly 50% of a woman’s cells will use the copy of the X chromosome that her father passed on to her and the other 50% will use the mother’s. If a woman has a defect in one of the immune system genes on the X chromosome, it could be corrected because not all of her cells will use the damaged copy ”explained José Luis Labandeira, professor of human anatomy at the University of Santiago de Compostela in El Pais.

@V.ALTOUNIAN/SCIENCE

Also, it appears that the immune system does not age at the same rate if we consider men and women. In the former it begins to weaken around the age of 63 while in women around 5 years later.

Finally, women have on their side the presence of estrogen which regulate the function of many types of cells in the immune system. One of these hormones helps lower inflammatory protein levels, which is very useful in the case of the aforementioned cytokine storm.

In any case, the protective effect of female hormones would only last until menopause, so it cannot be decisive in explaining the difference in mortality by sex between 70 and 80 years.

Understanding the correlations between sex and the consequences of the disease is, according to the authors, fundamental:

“It is important that studies on patients with Covid-19 report results disaggregated by sex, not only to clarify the pathogens of differential diseases, but also to allow a deeper understanding of this disease and the possible development of better treatment and prevention strategies “

There is still a lot to clarify about the mechanisms of action of the coronavirus but above all about the reaction put in place by our body (different depending on sex, age and many other characteristics) in case of infection.

Fonte: Science

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The article incorporates published studies and recommendations from international institutions and / or experts. We make no claims in the medical-scientific field and report the facts as they are. The sources are indicated at the end of each article

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Forced marriage: the health consequences

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Published on :

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), more than 140 million girls will be married between 2011 and 2020.

Forced marriage is when a person marries against their will. It is organized by families who do not respect or even care about their child’s denial of consent. Young girls who try to escape it are very often confronted with a family breakdown, with physical and psychological risks, and the traumas generated by early and unwanted sexual activity, early pregnancy, infections of the genital system. (AGI) and HIV.

What are the consequences of these forced marriages on the health of young girls?

Find the full program by clicking here.

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Braid, bird brooch … Why Lady Gaga seems straight out of “Hunger Games” at the inauguration of Joe Biden

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Invited to sing the American anthem, Lady Gaga caused as much sensation with her interpretation as in her look. And for good reason, the details chosen did not fail to recall the Hunger Games saga as evidenced by the various reactions on social networks.

Lady Gaga never leaves a look to chance. Every detail is particularly studied. So when invited by new president Joe Biden to sing during his inauguration speech, the artist reveals a colorful look. But beyond the majestic effect of her dress signed Schiaparelli (navy blue and red like the American flag), very quickly, it is the resemblance to the looks of the saga Hunger Games which quickly established itself. On social networks, many have seen in the choice of her hairstyle and her accessories nods to films in which Jennifer Lawrence plays the main heroine.

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The health consequences of forced marriage

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Published on :

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), more than 140 million girls will be married between 2011 and 2020.

Forced marriage involves marrying a person against their will. It is organized by families who do not respect or even care about their child’s denial of consent. Young girls who try to escape it are very often confronted with family breakdown, physical and psychological risks, and the traumas caused by early and unwanted sexual activity, early pregnancy, infections of the genital tract. (AGI) and HIV.

How can we help these women and girls, some of whom live in Europe and are forced into marriage abroad? What physical and psychological pathologies or disorders are diagnosed in the wake of these practices? Who to consult?

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Ella Emhoff, daughter-in-law of Kamala Harris and new web passion since the American inauguration

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The evening of the inauguration of Joe Biden, the daughter-in-law of Kamala Harris stirred the networks with a clever game of fashion and personality.

A sharp look, little round Harry Potter glasses and a hilarious set of eyebrows. This is how Ella Emhoff won the day on social networks, the evening of the inauguration of United States President Joe Biden. When ex-vice-president Mike Pence arrived, Kamala Harris’s daughter-in-law began to raise her eyebrows. A small visual detail then captured by the cameras. The sequence, as stealthy as it is, did not fail to react on social networks, which the young woman knows well to practice them as a fashion influencer.

Read also “ Kamala Harris’ purple coat, quite a symbol

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The poignant tribute paid to Harry Brant by his little sister Lily

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Stephanie Seymour and Peter Brant’s daughter posted a photo of her brother Harry Brant, who died Jan. 17 at age 24 from an overdose.

On January 19, 2021, the New York Times announced the death of Harry Brant, at the age of 24. The son of top Stephanie Seymour and American businessman Peter Brant died on January 17, following a drug overdose. On Instagram, her 16-year-old sister Lily shared her sadness by posting a text and a photo they appear in together. “You were the most amazing brother to me and you stuck with me through it all. You had the most beautiful and sensitive soul and a sense of humor that could brighten up anyone’s day, ”she writes. And to continue: “I love you indefinitely Harry. You are an angel and you will always be a beautiful person inside and out. Rest in peace”.

Read also “ Supermodel Stephanie Seymour’s son Harry Brant has died aged 24

This tribute ends with a quote from Ernest Hemingway dealing with the world and its fragility. Actresses Liv Tyler and Rossy de Palma responded to the post, posting in like. Other tributes have also been published, in particular those of the creators Roberto Cavalli, Olivier Theyskens or even Tom Van Dorpe, recently appointed to the artistic direction of the brand The Kooples.

The editorial team advises you

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Jill Biden, the president’s secret weapon

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It was in chabadabada mode that it all started. A love story with a surprisingly French moment. In 1975, in Wilmington, the capital of the small state of Delaware, a student model apprentice, Jill Jacobs, was invited to the cinema by Joe Biden, her eldest nine years. Biden, 33, is an ambitious Democratic senator. She, at the top of her 24 years, has just divorced her football player she met in high school. She wants to work, to be independent and hesitates between a career as a model, a stylist or a teacher. Two ambitions and two energies. A man and a woman. It is also the film of Claude Lelouch chosen by Joe for their first meeting!

Biden is going through a difficult time. Three years earlier, he lost his wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter, Naomi, in a car accident. He has to raise alone his two young boys, Beau and Hunter. Her brother shows her in the local newspaper the photo of a pretty blonde… an apprentice model. Jill Jacobs is a carefree student. Since her divorce, she likes to go out and will confide years later to Vogue : “When I opened the door and saw Joe, at first glance he didn’t stand a chance with his nice leather shoes and his raincoat… He was so classic compared to the guys I saw!” But when she comes back from that first night, Jill calls her mother at one in the morning to say, “I finally met a gentleman.” She especially likes the intelligence, the charm and the ambition of Joe.

Read also “ Jill Biden, Joe’s so essential wife and next First Lady

In video, the arrival of Melania Trump and Jill Biden at the first televised debate

“A lifelong commitment”

As with everything she does, Jill Jacobs takes her time to make up her mind. His father, Donald, manager of a savings bank in the suburbs of Philadelphia, taught him, along with his mother, a baker, the values ​​of work, tolerance, savings and commitment. Raised in these affluent suburbs of Democratic America, Jill has a sense of duty. Before becoming again housewife, she doesn’t want to get involved too quickly. This widower with his two children, who already call him “Mom” a few weeks after they met, scares him. She does not want to disappoint this family so affected by the tragedy. Joe Biden will ask for his hand four times. At the fifth, he will tell her: “It will be the last”, so that she finally gives in, two years after their meeting. It was “a lifelong commitment”, she confided years later. He, in his memoirs, will write simply that “Jill saved his life”.


Jill Biden, unwavering support of her husband

Joseph Biden, then US Senator from Delaware, announces that he is stepping down from the Democratic Party nomination contest for President of the United States. Behind him, his wife, Jill Biden. (Washington DC September 23, 1987.)

Arnie Sachs/CNP/ABACA

He is an ambitious senator who stands out in the political world of Washington. In the 1980s, when dinners in town were important for weaving his network of influence, Joe was absent from the elegant tables of Georgetown, where politics were made and unmade: every evening, he returned to his family in Wilmington. For over fifteen years, Joe Biden will travel an average of five hours a day to find Jill and the children. The young woman does not want to live in the capital and prefers the simple life in this America of small, middle-class towns, which she appreciates.

The teacher

Jill doesn’t want to give up her job as a public school teacher. She doesn’t look like a classic politician’s wife. She remains a recognized English teacher and even obtained a doctorate, at over 55 years old! Michelle Obama said she had never seen Jill Biden without a bunch of copies to correct. When her husband was appointed vice-president of Barack Obama, Jill forced her to continue teaching three to four times a week at a university in Virginia. To the students who sometimes asked her questions, she replied that she was “a close friend of Biden, but above all their teacher” and, to be discreet, she always asked the Secret Service who protected her from entering the classroom with her. And when she went on an official trip with the Obama team, Jill wrote to the principal asking for permission to be absent!

Jill Biden has already warned that even in the White House, she will remain a professor. She will therefore become the first First Lady to have a profession in civil society. This summer, during the Democratic convention, she gave her speech as the future First Lady from her small classroom at Delaware College. In her speech, Jill spoke of the need to unite America. “How do you reconcile a broken family? In the same way as for a country… With love, understanding, small gestures of kindness, and courage. ”

The ally

The courage, she has had in recent years. And, each time, she faces trials in the same way, quietly, but effectively. When she learned that four of her friends had breast cancer in the same year, in 1993 she created the association Biden Breast Health Initiative, to inform young women of the lowest income on the prevention of breast disease. And, with her tiny organization Book Buddies, she also collects and distributes books to those who can no longer afford to buy them because of the crisis.

But Jill Biden is also an important ally of her husband. In 2001, she arrived at a meeting wearing a black jersey printed with the word NO, to say publicly in front of his advisers that she did not want him to appear at the White House. After the re-election of George Bush in 2004, she then dressed for several weeks all in black. “In mourning,” she said, in memory of the soldiers who died in the war in Iraq. In 2007, discovering the fervor of meetings, she understood that the America of 2008 would be that of Barack Obama. She then advises her husband to join this young senator who is rising. Obama appreciates; he takes advantage of Biden’s years of experience in the halls of Congress. Joe knows the town of House of Cards : Barack Obama can no longer do without his contacts and advice.

The engaged


Jill Biden, ally of Michel Obama

Senator Barack Obama, then Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Joe Biden, whom he chose as vice president, on the right. On the left, their wives Michelle Obama and Jill Biden take the stage. (In Springfield, Illinois, August 23, 2008.)

Chicago Tribune/MCT/ABACA

During the 2008 campaign, Michelle Obama was the victim of racist attacks: she will never forget Jill Biden’s early rallying. The latter will also very quickly convince Michelle to follow her on the roads to comfort America of the mothers and wives of soldiers, affected since 2002 by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once a week, without a journalist, they will meet those who have a child in the service of the Nation. Two chief comforters who will rally the hearts and voices of military families for the Democrats.

Jill is very committed to this cause. One of Joe’s sons, Beau, whom she raised, served in Iraq. She will even write a book for the latter’s daughter, Don’t Forget : God Bless Our Troops. The book earned him more than $ 700,000 in copyright and lectures on the subject. Her salary as a professor is $ 90,000 per year. And, for her speeches, she is paid between $ 25,000 and $ 46,000, according to her tax return. Since the disappearance of Beau, who died in 2015, at the age of 46, of a brain tumor, Joe Biden has embodied America which survives family tragedies, but which continues, in the name of a certain idea of ​​democracy, the battles policies.

The protector


Le couple Biden

Joe Biden, then Vice President, and his wife Jill dance at the Commander-In-Chief Ball. (Washington, January 20, 2009.)

Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS/ABACA

In this funny election period under Covid, Jill also protected her husband. She managed her schedule, her appearances, and avoided the candidate, now 78, from taking too many risks. During a meeting in Los Angeles, when a protester rushed on stage to interrupt Joe Biden, it was Jill who intervened to protect her husband. “You always have to protect your loved ones, right?” She explained to ABC News. She is Biden’s indispensable shadow. His nurse and his counselor. In Washington, the good souls of the city are already comparing her to Nancy Reagan, a “head healer,” with an aging president who, under her smiles, managed with an iron fist every decision of the Oval Office.

Regardless of the critics, the love story of this years-long couple continues. The new president keeps repeating that he is “Jill’s husband to death”. Last February, on Valentine’s Day, after more than forty years of marriage, Joe Biden posted a photo on Instagram with these words: “ ou’re the love of my life, Jilly(You are the love of my life, Jilly). Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s future White House chief of staff, has already confirmed to the Washington Post that “Jill will be an essential part of the administration and his most important advisor, the one he trusts the most.”

On November 7, 2020, in his first speech to the Nation, the newly elected President Biden again thanked his wife for “her tireless work by his side,” and with his eyes on the cameras, said: “I am Jill’s husband: a mom, a military mom and an educator. ”

The editorial team advises you

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The three newcomers to CDU politics

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Of course, Laura Hopmann also followed the digital CDU party congress at home on the sofa. However, under difficult conditions – with her five-month-old son on her lap. “Such a small person may not be interested in everything that goes on when mom and dad stare at the screen for hours,” she says. Hopmann therefore missed the most exciting moment of the day: the decision about the party chairmanship. “The child was just hungry.” So she was breastfeeding in the kitchen when her husband called from next door: “It’s Laschet!” Scenes from a CDU household in 2021. You will get used to that too.

For the 31-year-old, there was a second arc of tension at this party congress: the election for the federal executive board, for which she had run for the first time. This time she was sitting in front of the laptop in time for the results to be announced. A result of which she says: “I did not dare to dream that.” Hopmann was elected with 80 percent of the vote. That was the fourth best result among all 34 candidates for the 26 places to be awarded.

Last weekend, for the first time in twenty years, a man was elected to head the CDU. The proportion of women on the federal executive board has nevertheless increased, it is now 40 percent. In addition, the CDU leadership has become younger. All of this is mainly due to three women that the Junge Union has sent into the race: Laura Hopmann and her colleagues, the 24-year-old Wiebke Winter and Anna Kreye, 26. The three now form the most amazing trio on the national board. Together they are still younger than Otto Wulff, the oldest board member.

Two years ago, the Chancellor complained about the low proportion of women at the top of the JU

Tilman Kuban, the head of the Junge Union, is accordingly proud. “It was a very successful weekend for the JU,” he says. The fact that “three women from the ranks of the Junge Union were elected to the CDU federal executive committee with strong results” has never happened before. “This means that more women from the Junge Union prevailed than those who were supported by the Women’s Union,” says Kuban. Those who want “strong, young and successful women” cannot ignore the Junge Union.

At least now you ask yourself whether this is still the JU that you knew before. Not entirely without good reason it was seen by some as a Junge Union – women in management positions were the exception. It has only been two years since the Chancellor criticized this in her own way. At that time, on a Germany day of the party youth, she complained about the low proportion of women in the JU top. The rule is: “Women enrich life, not only in private, but also in politics.” Amid the laughter of many delegates, Merkel said afterwards: “You don’t even know what you’re missing out on.”

The Junge Union seems to have taken this to heart. On her youngest day in Germany, she increased the proportion of women on the JU board from 23 to 41 percent. And now she and her candidates made sure that the board of the mother party became more female.

At 24 years old, Wiebke Winter is the youngest in the JU trio. She studied law and is about to complete her doctorate. Topic: “Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare”. In autumn she wants to move into the Bundestag for the constituency of Bremen II – Bremerhaven. And if you ask her why it all has to happen so quickly, she just says: “What should I wait for? I now see problems that we urgently need to tackle. Perhaps it will be too late in a few years.”

She was “always upset about the Bremen school system – I was in favor of maintaining the grammar schools, which should be abolished during my school days,” says Winter. This made the CDU interesting for them. At that time, however, she was not able to enter because she was a “great opponent of nuclear power”. “After the CDU changed course to Fukushima,” she was then able to join the CDU, and at the end of 2013 she submitted her application for membership. Now the 24-year-old sits on the CDU board with Prime Ministers and federal ministers.

Winter rejects a quota for women, even though she is the head of the women’s working group on the JU federal board. She even “fought strongly against the quota” that is to be introduced in the CDU, she says. Instead, she advocates “like a lioness for alternative funding opportunities” for women. “We need hybrid committee meetings, political parental leave and hate speech ombudsmen – women in particular experience more hate and sexual violence on the Internet, so support is needed.” All of this brings “significantly more than a quota for women”.

Anna Kreye, the state chairwoman of the Junge Union in Saxony-Anhalt, sees it similarly. She is a trainee lawyer at the Ministry of Finance in Magdeburg and says: “It is an important and correct sign that all three of us have made it onto the board.” She also sees herself here in a symbolic role. In order to increase its attractiveness with young voters, the CDU needs more “identification figures for this target group” – that is, young women who have a say where there is something to be decided. “That was neglected in the past,” says Kreye.

When Anna Kreye talks about the women’s quota, she sounds a bit like Friedrich Merz

From their point of view, the election results from the weekend are not just a symbol, but also proof. Kreye says: “This shows that as a young woman you can make it to the highest offices without any quota.” When she speaks about the women’s quota, it doesn’t sound quite as negative as Wiebke Winter, but sometimes a bit like Friedrich Merz, who often spoke of “the second best solution” in this context. Kreye says she prefers “alternative formats” to motivate young women, such as networking and mentoring programs.

Laura Hopmann describes herself as a “moderate opponent of the quota”. But she supports the compromise on the quota worked out in the CDU, also for the sake of peace with the Women’s Union, to which she also belongs. Hopmann comes from Hildesheim and has been a member of the state parliament in Lower Saxony for three years. When she is in the plenary session, her husband will be waiting outside the door with the baby. In between she runs out to breastfeed.

Of course there are still problems. Hopmann says that when the JU applicants were nominated for the federal executive committee, she heard one or the other complain: “Does it have to be three women?” But there were still three women.

Are we starting to worry about the men in the Union? “Nope,” says Laura Hopmann, “they’ll be fine.”

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