Home Page | About the IFRWH | National Committees| Board Members| Conferences| Newsletter |Publications|

Newsletter 33: News From National Committees: Germany

CONFERENCES
The annual conference of the German Federation for Women´s and Gender History was held in Bad Honnef 15-16 February 2002. Some 30 participants from 9 regional groups exchanged their observations concerning the institutional development of women´s and gender history in their respective regions and discussed recent research trends. The federation is planning its first large thematic conference to be held in spring 2003. The subject will be "Gendering things". Papers covering all historical periods will be presented. Some 80 participants are expected.

SCIENCE POLITICS
At the beginning of 2002, the federal government passed a new university law aiming at restructuring the German academic system. The qualification habilitation and the academic position assistant professor will be abolished; instead the new academic category junior professor is introduced. Limitations concerning the so called qualification periods are introduced: Six years from first university degree to PhD, six further years after the PhD to qualify for a tenure position.
The law will cause severe problems for young academics. There are hardly any tenure positions in the German academic system, except professorships, and currently, about 100-200 young historians use to apply for a chair. Hundreds of young academics who have passed the time limitations without having obtained a tenure position yet will be pushed out of the academic system by the new law and will be forced into unemployment. They have no possibility to work in academia any longer.
Most German historians of women´s and gender history are or will be affected by the law. Women´s and Gender History is still a marginalized field of research and teaching in German universities. Therefore, most of us have no tenure positions.
An enormous public protest among academics arose, in which very many historians were active, probably because our job situation is particularly bad. In reaction, the government introduced at least some interim regulations. Still, there are several severe problems left unsolved, and the limitation rules are not abolished, so our protest will go on.
The German government introduced the law to make German universities and research institutes more effective and more attractive for foreign researchers and to improve German science and academia in international competition. For us, it would be interesting to know if there are any comparable limitation rules in other countries. And it would be helpful for our protest against the law to get reactions and protest letters from other countries. Fur further information contact Wiebke Kolbe: wkolbe@geschichte.uni-bielefeld.de.
For those who read German: the public debate about the law is documented in www.historicum.net. The German Federation for Women´s and Gender History has written a critical statement against the law´s limitation rules, focussing on aspects of gender and age discrimination. It can be found on the federation´s website www.tu-bs.de/institute/geschichte/AKFrauForsch/ index.html.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Peter Döge/Michael Meuser (eds.), Männlichkeit und soziale Ordnung. Neuere Beiträge zur Geschlechterforschung, Opladen (Leske + Budrich) 2001, 239 pp., ISBN 3-8100-3036-8, 22,50 Euro

Susanne Barth, Mädchenlektüren. Lesediskurse im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt/Main (Campus) 2002, 200 pp., ISBN 3-593-37037-9, 34,90 Euro

Karen Hagemann, "Mannlicher Muth und Teutsche Ehre". Nation, Militär und Geschlecht in der Zeit der Antinapoleonischen Kriege Preußens, Paderborn (Schöningh) 2002, 617 pp., ISBN 3-506-74477-1, 52 Euro

Karen Hagemann, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (eds.), Heimat - Front. Militär und Geschlechterverhältnisse im Zeitalter der Weltkriege, Frankfurt/Main (Campus) 2002, 300 pp., ISBN 3-593-36837-4, 39,90 Euro

Elke Hartmann, Heirat, Häterentum und Konkubinat im Klassischen Athen, Frankfurt/Main (Campus), 290 pp., ISBN 3-5933-7007-7, 39,90 Euro

Martina Kessel, Langeweile. Zum Umgang mit der Zeit und Gefühlen in Deutschland vom 18. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, Göttingen (Wallstein) 2001, 412 pp., ISBN 3-8924-4382-3, 39 Euro

Wiebke Kolbe, Elternschaft im Wohlfahrtsstaat. Schweden und die Bundesrepublik im Vergleich 1945-2000, Frankfurt/Main (Campus) 2002, 520 pp., ISBN 3-5933-7058-1, 49 Euro

Maren Lorenz, Leibhaftige Vergangenheit. Einführung in die Körpergeschichte, Tübingen (Edition Diskord) 2000, 239 pp., ISBN 3-89295-0, ca. 19 Euro

Iris Schröder, Arbeiten für eine bessere Welt. Frauenbewegung und Sozialreform 1890-1914, Frankfurt/Main (Campus) 2001, 368 pp., ISBN 3-5933-6783-1, 39,90 Euro

Uta Schwarz, Wochenschau, westdeutsche Identität und Geschlecht in den fünfziger Jahren, Frankfurt/Main (Campus) 2002, 500 pp., ISBN 3-593-36873-0, 39,90 Euro

-compiled by Wiebke Kolbe, Bielefeld University