Sociology of Gender
Research and Teaching Unit 8
The research and teaching unit 8 of sociology of gender can look back on a long tradition. As early as 1990, the Faculty of Sociology introduced an elective subject "Women's Studies" as part of the diploma course and thus made a significant contribution to the institutionalisation of gender studies at universities in the Federal Republic of Germany.
There are currently two professorships in gender sociology at the Faculty of Sociology: Prof Dr Tomke König and Prof Dr Diana Lengersdorf. One research assistant is assigned to each of the two professorships.
The Gender Department is responsible for and coordinates the gender sociology courses offered in all degree programmes at the Faculty. The members of the department offer courses primarily in the Bachelor's module "Gender Studies and Gender Relations", the Master's module "Gender Sociology" and in all modules of the MA "Gender Studies - Interdisciplinary Research and Application" degree programme. Teaching research is also carried out at irregular intervals.
Research in the field of gender can be categorised into two major thematic areas: the entanglement of social and gender order and the significance of gender for the modes of existence of individuals.
- Research profile
As gender researchers, we are committed to a reflexive understanding of science. Central to this is a critical attitude towards the unquestioned taken-for-grantedness of everyday life as well as scientific theories and models of thought and towards one's own standpoints and position in the field of knowledge production.
A further aspect of this understanding of science is the focus on the historical genesis of social constructions of gender in interaction with other forms of symbolic domination, above all 'race'/ethnicity, class and sexuality. This understanding of science forms the common orientation framework for research in the field of gender.
The individual projects can be categorised into two major thematic fields:
- the entanglement of social and gender order and
- the significance of gender for the ways in which individuals exist.
1. the entanglement of social and gender order
Gender studies, as we understand it, is based on the constitutive significance of gender for the emergence and reproduction of social order. The central question is how social order and gender order are historically intertwined in specific and concrete ways. How do the transformations in the economy and in gender relations affect each other? How are different categories of symbolic domination linked in these processes of the production of inequality? With these questions, we tie in with national and international debates in gender studies (keywords include: Neoliberal modes of governance, commodification of care work, care chains, precarisation, dissolution of boundaries and subjectification of work, gender segregation of the gainful employment market). One area of particular interest in this thematic field of research is the connection between the sphere of employment and privacy. How can care be guaranteed in times when gainful employment is centred and the boundaries of gainful employment are blurred? How does the domestic division of labour come about and what role do the state and the private sector play in this?
2. the significance of gender for the modes of existence of individuals
The starting point is the epistemological assumption that gender is not a property of persons, but the result of an interactive process of production that cannot be stopped, which takes place within the framework of historically specific social and cultural orders and represents an inseparable requirement. This theoretical understanding is summarised in Simone de Beauvoir's famous formulation: we are not born as women or men, we become them. This includes the structural level of individual existence as well as the assumption of the uniqueness of individuals. Gendered subjects are formed in a specific way as they interact with their environment. Gender does not remain external to individuals; it does not only take place in our heads. Gender and the demands placed on the sexes in our society can be felt, experienced and are therefore real for the subjects in the here and now. To investigate this somatic or bodily-affective dimension of gender, we at AB Gender are currently developing a new method that we call experience-based research. We are not only investigating how the social order inscribes itself into the body, but above all how the stubbornness of the bodily experience of gender leads to change and novelty.
- Research projects
- GRK Gender as experience
GRK Gender as Experience. The constitution and transformation of social modes of existence
The Research Training Group (GRK) investigates people's experiences of their gender within the horizon of society. The focus is on the physical-bodily experience and the social experience of being gendered in the world. How do people experience their gendered existence? How is gender constituted in lived experiences and in the entanglement with other dimensions of existence (class, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, health, age, religion)? To what extent does the bodily dimension in particular represent a prerequisite for the transformation of gender orders?
With this focus on physical corporeality and the complex experiential space of gender, the research programme bridges the long-established dichotomy in gender studies between 'deconstructivist' and 'essentialist' approaches. As the objects of investigation and goals of the RTG lie at odds with the established disciplines, subject areas that have so far been largely separate in gender studies are cooperating: American Studies, German Literature, Health Sciences Political Science, Sociology and Sports Science. Mediated by two research pillars - the constitution of social modes of existence (I) and the resulting transformation of gender orders (II) - the empirical realities of gender on the one hand and the theoretical conceptions of the category of gender on the other are to be systematically related to each other in the individual project ending dates.
Das Ziel des Qualifizierungskonzeptes ist es, die Fertigstellung innovativer Doktorarbeiten in der Förderzeit von drei Jahren zu ermöglichen und Doktorand*innen auf wissenschaftliche und außerwissenschaftliche (auch internationale) Karrieren vorzubereiten. Das auf das Forschungsprogramm zugeschnittene Qualifizierungskonzept greift auf langjährige Erfahrungen und bestehende Strukturen der Universität Bielefeld zurück. Die für Karrieren im Wissenschaftssystem unerlässliche Ausbildung disziplinärer Kompetenzen wird im GRK systematisch mit der Aneignung interdisziplinärer Perspektiven verschränkt. Spezifische Arbeitsformate bilden den Rahmen für innovative Forschung, einen kontinuierlichen Austausch unterschiedlicher Disziplinen sowie die Entwicklung gesellschaftsrelevanter Themen der Geschlechterforschung für die scientific community und die breitere Öffentlichkeit.
Weiterführende Informationen zum Qualifizierungskonzept, beteiligten Wissenschaftler*innen und zu aktuellen Stellenangeboten finden Sie am IZG.
- Teaching
Teaching profile
The Gender Department is responsible for and coordinates the gender sociology courses offered in all degree programmes at the Faculty. The members of the department offer courses primarily in the Bachelor's module "Gender Studies and Gender Relations", the Master's module "Gender Sociology" and in all modules of the degree programme "MA Gender Studies - Interdisciplinary Research and Application". Teaching research in the field of gender studies is also carried out at irregular intervals.
The courses offered focus on interdisciplinary theories, methods and findings of Women's, Men's and Gender Studies as well as the following thematic focuses:
The focus area "Socialisation and Education" deals with the significance of gender and gender relations in connection with socialisation and educational processes in various formal and informal contexts.
The focus area "Work and Social Transformations" deals with theoretical concepts and empirical analyses of the interdependence of social order and gender order. The focus is on the gendered division of domestic, care and paid work, gendered labour market segregation and the gender-related structuring of organisations.
The specialisation "Body and Health" deals with the connections and interactions between body, health and gender. In this module, students acquire knowledge of different body theories and learn about different disciplinary perspectives on the body and its significance for gender and gender relations.
The course is designed to meet the increasing labour market demand for gender experts. Students are enabled in didactic and methodological terms to use the acquired knowledge and the corresponding practical skills to analyse and reflect on gender relations and to implement gender equality and equal opportunities in professional work contexts.
Finally, the MA in Gender Studies - Interdisciplinary Research and Application degree programme enables research-based learning and introduces students to the practice of transdisciplinary academic work. The systematic anchoring of inter- and transdisciplinarity in the courses offered (especially in the form of co- and team teaching) is ensured by the close connection to the research activities of the professors and junior researchers involved in the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies (IZG).
Scientific work
This document provides students with information and advice on the assessment and grading of written examinations. The checklist serves as an aid when writing term papers or final theses in the courses organised by the Department of Gender Studies. Students should always consult their teaching staff in good time (e.g. during office hours).
Courses
Please refer to the electronic course catalogue (ekvv) for courses organised by the department.
- Publications
- Team
- Contact
