Research Focus III: Work and gender. The transformation of social gender relations by processes of globalization, Europeanization and neo-liberalization.

The remeasurement of social gender relations through economic and social changes are embedded in a constitutive context of the reorganization of work, the structuring of gainful work and care work and the distribution of paid and unpaid and minimally paid work. Currently this re-organization of work takes place in a context reinforced by Europeanization, globalization and neo-liberalization.
In particular, the implementation of new political labor market measures and instruments of control, as well as constellations of stakeholder actors, male and female, enable on the one hand the dissolution of traditional gender attributions in the European welfare regimes and lead to overcoming nation-state restricted, unequal gender relations in modern societies; on the other hand neoliberal dynamics, which result in novel formations of unequal gender relations, also come along with these processes.
The topic of interest in this research project is aimed first and foremost at the effects of the restructuring of gainful employment, reproduction, international and gender-specific division of labor and the concomitant social paradigms and political compromises for the situation of women in the European labor market. The effects on social gender relations are examined from a sociological, economic, political, and legal perspective in different areas and in the dependence on national sociocultural foundations.

 

Activities Implemented and In Progress:

1. Interdisciplinary Conference on the Subject of Work and Gender

Founding conference for the Center for European Gender Studies (ZEUGS) on 5 December 2012 at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Muenster.
Lectures:

  • Prof. Dr. Gabriele Wilde (Institute of Political Science, Muenster): On the constitution of social gender relations in Europe. Plea for a critical feminist theory of the politics.
  • Dr. Katrin Späte (Institute of Sociology, Muenster): Which Europe? Gender - a statistical category as a methodological or political problem?
  • Prof. Dr. Annette Zimmer (Institute of Political Science, Muenster): Women in leadership positions in civil society.
  • Prof. Dr. Karin Böllert (Institute of Education, Muenster): Child and Youth Services - Female labor market between shortage of skilled labor and precariousness.
  • Prof. Dr. Gabriele Abels (Tübingen): Gender-oriented EU Research - A look back and a look forward.
  • Associate Prof. Dr. Sabine Berghahn (Berlin): Obstructive and/or Helpful - Laws (legal structures) for (more) egalitarian gender relations!
  • Prof. Dr. Andrea Bührmann (Göttingen): Continuities and discontinuities in order of the sexes? Challenges and opportunities for a sociology of gender relations.
  • Prof. Dr. Ilse Lenz (Bochum): Gender conflicts and gender politics in international comparison.

2. Pre-proposal

(Dr. Eva Katharina Sarter) Development of an interdisciplinary postgraduate program on the correlation between work and gender was set up at the Center for European Gender Studies (ZEUGS) in 2013.

3. Lecture Series

During summer term 2013 an interdisciplinary lecture series on the topic "The relationship between women and work" was offered.

4. Instructions

A course titled "Women in non-profit organizations: motivation, working conditions and opportunities for advancement" was offered in Summer Semester 2016. In Summer Semester 2015 a course on „Changing gender and work relations“was given.

5. Article

Wilde, Gabriele: The Consequences of the European Labor Market and Employment Policies for Democratic Gender Relations. Article on 22 May 2014 for the online dossier "Equality Project Europe?" of the Gunda Werner Institute at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

6. Working Paper

Paul, Franziska | Walter, Andrea
Besser geht’s nicht? Geschlechterverhältnisse in Führungs-, Kontroll- und Beratungsgremien in Nonprofit-Organisationen in Deutschland - Ergebnisse einer Online-Befragung.
ZEUGS – Working Paper No. 9|2016.

Walter, Andrea
An die Spitze! Aber wie? „Frauen in Führung“ im öffentlichen, privaten und Nonprofit-Sektor – eine Bestandsaufnahme der aktuellen Literaturlage samt Handlungsempfehlungen.
ZEUGS – Working Paper No. 8|2015.

Wilde, Gabriele
Folgen der Europäischen Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungspolitik für demokratische Geschlechterverhältnisse.
ZEUGS – Working Paper No. 4|2014.