finally did a feminist thing...

Oh and random tip for comprehension - stay away from the word "if". If you find yourself wanting to say it, use "when". The German word wenn covers both if and when (even for hypothetical situations) and they tend to be able to follow much more easily if you use a familiar sounding word which essentially means the same to them.

Oh yes just speak English at them. Most Germans think their English is terrible but it's actually very good. Just speak slowly, use simple sentence structure/words rather than complicated ones if they seem to be struggling and let them have a chance to digest what you've said, if they don't seem to understand.

(English teacher living in Germany here :))

Sexualised images of women are very much more common here than they are in Britain so it's probably even less likely to be noticed and probably will be thought of as a bit of a joke if you suggest it's a problem, but don't be put off - they ought to be polite to you in person, and you might find you speak to somebody who recognises your concerns.

Also, don't do the British thing of playing it down. When we say "I suggest..." to a British person it reads as "Please do..." but to someone from another culture (especially a direct speaking one like Germany) they read it as "This is just an idea, but it's not very important. Don't worry about it." Just be direct, state the problem, request action. Don't quantify with "it would be great if you..." or "I strongly suggest" just say "It would be best if you..." or "Another photo would be more encouraging" or similar.

You could ask them if someone there speaks English - it's likely.
Hallo is Hello in German, then 'Spricht jemand (pronounced yeymand) Englisch' should work.

Or you could just pester them on Twitter.

Or get a German feminist twitterer to pester them.

Thank you for having it removed from your dept anyway. My daughter is in her teens and choosing science subjects and the more welcoming sciences are to girls, the better. She would absolutely have noticed something like that.

Want DD to do it? She's very assertive

Well done from me too.

When I was a young woman I never dared openly speak out about unhelpful representations of/attitudes to women as I thought my motivation for disliking them might be partly due to being jealous of attractive women.

Then to my shame I seemed to forget about the feminist cause while my DC were little and I was a SAHM. The old-fashioned role of SAHM mum suited me (for various reasons). And DD and I enjoyed her 'girly' clothes .

I regret this now, and regularly tell DD and DS about feminist causes, campaigns etc but it's hard when they are teenagers embarrassed by nearly everything.... So I'm very grateful to you for not only being a thoughtful parent but actively taking a stand.

Well done OP.

Well done IceBeing!

And well done wellwellwell and DD.

And well done Ice's DD.

I like it too!

I like that anecdote.

Well done!

And surely the shakiness was some sort of precognition of the difference you've made in the world. In addition to the good you've done in your own institution something will have clicked in the salesperson's head. It may take a while but he'll notice things more now.

Bathtime - she is ringing McCoys later. She said, 'In the interests of equality, I should ring them too - their 'man crisps' rubbish really annoys me'.

Nestle told her that Yorkies were traditionally seen as a man's chocolate bar

She is utterly fantastic. Both DS1 and DS2 are feminists too. And if you think her phone skills are good you should see her on a rugby pitch...

Wellwell - I will be so proud if my DD ever does that.

She sounds fab! :)

I feel hope for the future just hearing about her.

Well done, IceBeing.

Sorry your chair of diversity is such a useless prick.

DD (11) rang Nestle yesterday to complain about the 'man fuel for man jobs' slogan on her Yorkie. She used phrases like 'speaking as a feminist' and 'surely we have moved on from this'. Just got to work on her ethical chocolate buying now

Well done OP.

Congrats! It gets easier every time you would stand up to sexism.
(speaking from experience )

Congratulations!

Are you going to mention it to the chair of the diversity and equality committee, because it sounds like he might not be the best person for that job?

Well done for asking them to remove it.

Part of living in a society involves learning not to make public protests against things that most people take for granted--sexism in pretty much every form being a major item. Well, most people would at least give a token agreement that rape is a bad thing, but that's about the limit! So if you step out of line with something that's likely to make you noticed as the non-conformist, it's an adrenaline-pumping incident. But yes, if you do it a few times, you either realise you aren't likely to get bruised, or you get used to bruises.