{"id":1127,"date":"2026-02-09T17:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/frauenrechtsgeschichte\/?p=1127"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T17:08:07","slug":"julia-onken-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/frauenrechtsgeschichte\/en\/2026\/02\/09\/julia-onken-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Onken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julia Onken was born in 1942 and grew up in a family constellation marked by fractures, contradictions, and strong tensions. From an early age, she learned to observe people closely and to distinguish between what is said and what is truly meant. These biographical experiences formed the fertile ground for her later interest in psychological, social, and gender-related issues. Her engagement with women\u2019s and equality issues did not come through the law, but through life itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a self-taught practitioner, she developed a keen sensitivity to psychological dynamics, power relations, and structural inequalities. She later completed her training in applied and transpersonal psychology in Zurich and Freiburg. Early on, she began working with people facing challenging life situations, including work in a prison. In her psychological practice, she consistently linked personal experiences with an analysis of social conditions. She recognized that women\u2019s individual crises were often expressions of structural disadvantages, manifesting, for example, in financial dependency, the lack of recognition of care work, or the public devaluation of women\u2019s voices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Julia Onken did not experience the introduction of women\u2019s suffrage in 1971 as a biographical turning point, but initially as background noise. Only later, through her own experiences of separation and dependency, did she become fully aware of the political dimension of women\u2019s disenfranchisement. These insights took root in ground already prepared by a solid literary education, feminist sensitivity, and deep psychological reflection.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1980s, she founded the Frauenseminar Bodensee, which became a central site of feminist education. There she combined personal development, psychological knowledge, and critical analysis of society. At the heart of her work were self-esteem, self-efficacy, language, and the question of why women, despite high levels of competence, so rarely step into the public sphere and are heard. Through her seminars, training programs, and publications, Julia Onken made an important contribution to rendering visible those subtle mechanisms through which women are still devalued and constrained today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Julia Onken\u2019s life path exemplarily shows that the struggle for equality does not take place solely at the legislative level. Her work highlights how closely intertwined personal biographies, social structures, and political developments are, and how central psychological education remains to processes of emancipation.<\/span><\/p>\n