The Katholische Arbeitnehmerbewegung (KAB - Catholic Workers’ Movement) of Germany, and its European partner movements, KAB Austria and KVW South Tyrol (Katholischer Verband der Werktätigen - Catholic Association of Workers), organised the European Women’s Summer Academy at the KönzgenHaus in Haltern am See, Germany. The event, entitled ‘Standing tall instead of worn out – focusing on women's health’, was held from 15-20 June 2026, and provided a forum for women from workers’ organisations to address women’s health not as a private concern, but as a social and labour policy issue. The event was organised in collaboration with EZA and funded by the European Union. 30 representatives from workers’ organisations in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol / Italy took part.
Why was the seminar important at this particular point in time? Women bear systematic multiple stresses in both their professional lives and their care responsibilities, with measurable consequences in terms of their health: a higher burden of mental illness, more sick days, and a loss of earning capacity at an earlier stage in their working life. These stresses do not arise in their private life, but at work. They should therefore be included in the social dialogue – in collective bargaining, works agreements and on the agendas of trade unions and works councils. The seminar highlighted women’s health as a subject of negotiation between employers and workers’ representatives, and empowered participants to express their demands within these structures.
Topics and discussions
The programme combined personal experience, academic analysis, socio-ethical reflection and practical exploration which engaged the mind, heart and body equally:
Body and empowerment: The multi-part theatre workshop led by Dr Laura Berkemeyer (Münster), enabled participants to experience health through their bodies: When do I say ‘yes’, and when do I express a firm ‘no’? Where do I set boundaries? The focus was on taking an honest look at one’s own resources rather than on self-improvement, and on ‘cheerful failure’ as an antidote to the pressure of always having to perform.
Shocking statistics: Martha Scholz-Resch (Managing Director of the Berufliches Bildungs- und Rehabilitationszentrum, BBRZ, (Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre), Austria) highlighted the extent to which medicine remains designed for the male body: women are diagnosed later or incorrectly, die more frequently from heart attacks than from breast cancer, and take almost twice as many sick days due to mental health issues compared to men. Women spend almost a quarter of their lives in poor health; a finding that has direct implications for health and safety at work.
The invisible mechanism: Social ethicist Dr Magdalena Holztrattner (Vienna) summed up the concept of ‘mental load’; the constant strain of having to think of everything. Her main argument is that our economy relies on unpaid care work, carried out predominantly by women, without taking it into account or ensuring that it can be maintained. Exhaustion is therefore not an individual problem, but a structural one.
Care as an economic issue: Liska Beulshausen (Wirtschaft ist Care e.V., Berlin) used time-usage data to demonstrate the uneven distribution of unpaid work, and argued that women’s health depends on how a society organises care work. Health requires care, yet care can itself become a health risk for those who provide it.
An inspiring story: The conversation with Marianne Kaiser, a contemporary witness to the ‘Heinze Frauen’ case (Gelsenkirchen), when women employed at the photographic company, Heinze, won their case for equal pay at the labour court in 1981, pointed out that women secured equal pay not as individual heroines, but through collective organisation and the support of their trade union. The encounter with Dore Jacobs, a socialist and movement educator from Essen, led by curator Gerburg Fuchs, emphasised the fact that body image, social justice and women’s rights have always been inextricably linked.
Methodological focus: graphic recording
One element that was unusual in terms of methodology was the continuous graphic recording by Carolin Moch (European Coordinator of the European CAJ (Christliche Arbeiterjugend - Christian Workers' Youth), Brussels). She captured the discussions and outcomes of the entire week in drawings and presented them as a large-scale composite image at the end of the event. This made abstract connections, including those between mental load, care work and health-related stress, immediately visible, and ensured the results were accessible to a wide audience and transcended language barriers. At the same time it was also serving as material for the participants to use for knowledge transfer and dissemination within their organisations.
Results from the seminar and demands
Specific demands arose from the discussions directed at the political sphere, the healthcare system and the world of work: women’s health as an essential area of focus in medicine and research, pay transparency, pension splitting or full pension credits for care work and working hour arrangements and company agreements that promote good health. The participants rendered these ideas into memorable guiding principles to translate them into their own practice: “Make your unpaid work visible”, “If you need more time, delegate some of your work”, “If you want to improve your situation, show solidarity”, which make it clear that change cannot be achieved alone, but only together.
Impact-oriented approach and evaluation
The week was evaluated specifically in terms of its impact. The participants rated impact-related statements on a scale of agreement (ranging from ‘I completely agree’ to ‘I disagree’) in a moderated concluding session, that included:
“The summer academy was a valuable experience for me overall.”
“I now see my health more as a social issue rather than an exclusively private one.”
“It has inspired me to explore the topics and ideas that had been developed with others in the group.”
“I was able to name a specific demand that I want to advocate.”
“I feel confident that I can raise one of our topics within my group or organisation.”
“I feel more confident about standing up for myself and others and expressing my opinions.”
The survey revealed a mixed picture. The statements “The summer academy was a valuable experience for me overall” and “I feel more confident about standing up for myself and others and expressing my opinions” received a particularly high level of agreement; there was also a strong desire to continue exploring the topics that had been developed. The responses were more widely distributed for other statements – such as the social context of health, with a number of respondents in the middle. This response was not interpreted as indecision in the explanatory notes, but rather as a deliberate ‘both-and’ approach, because the participants feel that health is both a social and a personal issue.
Furthermore, when prompted by the key question “What am I taking away from this and what specific action can I carry out?”, the participants detailed their plans for putting what they had learned into practice: new perspectives and energy for their own work, the realisation that “I can incorporate this into my paid work” and – particularly frequently – the certainty that they would be able to continue working alongside other committed women.
Implementation in daily working life
Several participants have joined forces to launch a joint initiative on behalf of the KAB to mark the International Day of Action for Women’s Health on 28 May 2027, and planning has already started. The seminar therefore is continuing to have an impact beyond the week itself, both within the participants’ trade unions and in public campaigns.