8 March is International Women's Day. Established in 1911, there have been a number of developments since then, particularly in gender studies. Some things have been achieved, but there is still room for improvement in other areas. In the news - for example in the USA - developments are emerging that are thwarting efforts to achieve equality and undoing what has already been achieved.
Prof Dr Antje Langer and Dr Susanne Richter, who together lead the research project "GeFoWiss - Gender as a category of analysis in university research and knowledge contexts" at Paderborn University, refer to current developments and talk about the progress made in gender research in this interview.
In 2018, Mrs Langer, you spoke in an interview on the topic of "100 years of women's suffrage" that there would be an increasing awareness of gender issues in public discourse. Seven years later, do you feel that this assessment has been confirmed and do you believe that social progress or even change has taken place since then?
Langer: I would still put it the same way today. In the last seven years, social gender relations have also become more prominent in the public eye as a result of their thematisation during the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, there have been discussions about who is 'systemically relevant', how care work is distributed and the issue of domestic violence has come more into the spotlight than before. #MeToo also contributed to this, with a focus on sexualised violence in various areas of society. There were legal changes: the introduction of the category 'diverse' for intersex people in the Civil Status Act in 2018, and the Self-Determination Act came into force in 2024. This has also set institutional changes in motion. And last but not least, social media is raising public awareness of gender issues in a variety of ways.
Public and media controversies 'around gender' have increased in scope and vehemence. In this respect, the situation, which was characterised more than ten years ago in gender research as one of opposing trends, has come to a head: So on the one hand, we see more gender equality, at least in certain fields of society, and a normalisation of diversity. On the other hand, we also see an entrenchment of inequalities combined with retraditionalisation and even the denial of any existence or the need to consider gender relations at all. In this respect, we can also speak of a change in the last seven years: The contradictions and gender demands - which everyone has to deal with - have become more complex and unavoidable. It is therefore a paradoxical situation - and gender research is not running out of topics.
Many of the current political dynamics and events are linked from a gender perspective: The rise of authoritarian or reactionary actors and forces is closely linked to progressive successes and developments. As threatening and downright destructive as this is at present, the fact that this also means that the conflicts surrounding gender, class and other social inequalities are becoming increasingly widespread in society and that these power relations are less and less able to operate unseen indicates an important change from a gender theory perspective.
That sounds like a relatively good result at first. At the same time, universities and research projects in the USA, especially with a focus on so-called DEI programmes (diversity, equity and inclusion), are in acute danger due to massive financial interventions. Do such developments also have an influence on your research here in Germany?
Richter: What is currently happening in the USA is unprecedented and we are observing it with great concern. However, we also see it as a continuity of dynamics that we have been dealing with here in Germany for a long time and which also seem to be on the rise: Here, too, the humanities and social sciences in general and gender studies in particular have long been the subject of devaluation and even direct attacks. Hostility and degradation of gender studies as well as precarious funding and research infrastruture are not new problems, as a recent paper by the German Council of Science and Humanities makes clear. The current cuts are helping to legitimise these challenges and restrictions. However, this is not just about gender aspects or diversity in research; we are dealing with a fundamental questioning of science that affects us all.
Langer: At the same time, the latest developments show how important these sciences are. The knowledge and ability to critically analyse from these fields are urgently needed for stable democracies, for increasingly complex societies and for the problems and crises that we are currently facing. The importance of the knowledge produced by gender studies is demonstrated by the fact that it is often the first and most intensively attacked by authoritarian actors.
Finally, we also see a potentially positive aspect here. The fact that the attacks on science, on democratic institutions in general (and recently even on civil society) have recently become so widespread in the USA and, in the USA, also affect many other researchers, is generating a lot of resistance and broad, hopefully stable alliances.
Since 2024, you have been jointly leading the project "GeFoWiss - Gender as a category of analysis in university research and knowledge contexts", which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). One of the aims of the project is to sensitise people to gender aspects across research areas and to make gender dimensions within research more visible. Why exactly are these aspects so relevant and what potential do you both see in them?
Richter: Gender aspects are important for many areas of research. This is particularly impressive in medicine, for example, where for a long time it was not even clear how serious the consequences are of the fact that research has long focussed almost exclusively on male bodies. As a result, we know much less about female bodies and how many diseases can affect women differently to men. It is now known that this is an honourable grievance: women are diagnosed and treated with much less success and in many cases even have a significantly higher risk of dying from diseases. Other illnesses, on the other hand, mainly affect men. Car accidents, for example, are statistically much more dangerous for women than for men: they are twice as likely to be seriously injured in accidents. This is due to the fact that the safety of cars has long been tested using mannequins modelled exclusively on male bodies.
The fact that these examples are so drastic is a good illustration of what 'GeFoWiss' is all about: it is at least potentially important to take gender and social categories into account in all research projects. Only then can we ensure that our research produces knowledge and new technologies from which all members of society can benefit equally.
Langer: But there are also positive examples. For example, researchers from Paderborn University were involved in developing systems for an uninterruptible power supply in rural regions of Africa. The study carried out by Henry Asiimwe in the research context shows that, in addition to technical developments, it is crucial how these are contextualised in the respective social conditions in order to become 'effective'. Especially in the context of sustainability developments, the gender dimension plays a major role that has been undervalued to date. As long as this is ignored - in this case, for example, who gets access to electricity, i.e. light or a refrigerator, and what conflicts result from this - many fields of society are not covered at all and developed strategies and technologies often only realise their potential to a limited extent.
These examples show the need to address gender aspects in research in very different fields. This is obvious for some topics, but not for others - also because the perspective has perhaps never been taken before. Innovative research also needs this lens, especially if it wants to be internationally or globally orientated. The German Council of Science and Humanities also draws attention to this in its 2023 recommendations to broaden the already interdisciplinary gender studies programme and interlink it more closely with other disciplines, in particular the STEM subjects or economics. The 'GeFoWiss' specialist unit is there precisely to explore in dialogue - and this is important to us - where gender aspects may or may not play a role.
This text was translated automatically.
