Statement "On the benefits of gender research"

Gender studies are an indispensable part of the research and teaching programs of many disciplines in the social sciences, cultural studies, and humanities. One end of the spectrum is research into the respective gender-specific patterns and structures, effects and impacts inherent in seemingly neutral programs, actions and ideas about the welfare state, work, family, education, consumption, inclusion, technology and culture. At the departments of social sciences and humanities at the University of Kassel, various fields of sociology, political science, history, educational science, and social work have been devoted to this investigation for many years. They make it clear that gender research is now a natural, normal part of many disciplines. At the same time, the effects and implications of the interdisciplinary debates and research of gender studies on concrete societal and social issues become apparent.

With regard to law and democracy, Prof. Dr. Sonja Buckel, Department of Political Theory, notes that despite the equality of all people in the Basic Law (Art. 3: "All men are equal before the law"), the latter continue to produce bisexuality and subsequent social relations of subordination. Thus, "their analysis is an essential prerequisite for social emancipation." The influence of gender studies can be seen in the discussions and changes in sexual criminal law as well as in the current debate on sexual and reproductive rights. 

In the German public sphere, especially in the debates on Islam, gender and gender norms repeatedly become the subject of agitated disputes, Dr. Floris Biskamp from the Department of Globalization and Politics shows in his analyses. These disputes, according to Biskamp, "often amount to majority society repressing its own problems on gender issues by marking sexism, patriarchy, and homophobia as primarily Islamic phenomena and thus disposing of them."

The fact that migration and, most recently, flight are shaped by gender-normative experiences and attributions is analyzed by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Tuider and Dr. Olaf Tietje from the Department of Sociology of Diversity in the BMBF joint project "Welcome Culture and Democracy in Germany." In the context of migration and work, "the feminized and ethnicized transmission of care tasks in the context of migration constitutes a gender-normative regulative." In the global economy as well as in private households, migrants are in demand today: "They have long since ceased to be family members who migrate with them, but independent actors. In the international migration regime dominated by regulation and control, reference must also be made to the structurally differentiated experiences of violence: Sexualized violence before, during and after the flight is a particularly dramatic moment here.

Prof. Dr. Aram Ziai from the Department of Development and Postcolonial Studies explains that "development policies always have gendered unequal impacts." Also, "the project of 'development,' i.e., rationally planned, productivity- and growth-oriented social restructuring, has strong masculine connotations." In the context of postcolonial studies, Ziai says, "it becomes clear that the construction of the less rational, less productive, immature, close-to-nature, unrestrained, childlike Other functions very similarly with regard to women and nonwhite people." The white male, he argues, represents the unmarked norm of continued colonial discourse.

Specifically, the BMBF-funded junior research group "Glocalpower - funds, tools and networks for an African energy transition" addresses the seemingly quite neutral topics of "global energy policy" and "energy transition in the global South." When it comes to equitable access to renewable energy and technology transfer, and analyzing who benefits from green funds and who can be relevant actors in an energy transition, it becomes apparent "that a gender-sensitive perspective on energy policy arenas brings discrimination relations to light, thereby making technologies and technological knowledge more accessible. Explicit questions are now being asked about the interests and desires of energy consumers and the democratizing potential of decentralized energy sources is being exploited," say Dr. Franziska Müller and Dr. Simone Claar, heads of the junior research group.

Also for the field of development economics and practical development cooperation, Prof. Dr. Christoph Scherrer, director of the International Center for Development and Decent Work, makes clear that "the neglect of gender division of labor led to the failure of the introduction of new agricultural technologies, especially in African target countries, because their mediation was directed at men, who occupied the public space but did not perform the actual agricultural work. It is to the credit of women's studies in the 1970s to have pointed out this costly misconception." And gender-sensitive research on austerity policies has been able to show, Scherrer continues, "that the consequences of these policies, often dictated by the International Monetary Fund, are not gender-neutral. "Rather, cuts in public goods, such as kindergartens, after-school care, and health care, affect women in particular because these cuts must be compensated for by women's extra work. Government spending policies are still oriented toward a (male) family breadwinner model.

The fact that this model of work and family has had its day and that we cannot think about the future of work without a gender-reflective approach is shown by the recent research of the sociologist of work Prof. Dr. Kerstin Jürgens. The debates in gender studies underpin how important it is, in view of demographic change and a lack of skilled workers, to design work that takes private care work into account. After all, "the labor market is still segregated by gender. Despite having the same qualifications, women earn lower salaries and are less likely to reach management positions. And private care work is still largely performed by women, despite modernized models. A gender-sociological perspective thus raises awareness of the connection between the private and social division of labor." With regard to digitization, Jürgens problematizes "that humanoids in care are conceived with female attributes. This underpins how, even today, a supposedly feminine or masculine capacity for work is attributed."

Anyone who wants to understand how differences underpinned by domination in work, education, life situations, and organizations with different burdens, disadvantages, and preferences are reproduced but also modified over long periods of time should turn to gender studies, which has arguably been concerned with the production of differences, their naturalization, and culturalization for the longest time. That this is especially necessary in political education, which is, after all, about questions of human rights, power, domination and their critical questioning, emphasizes Prof. Dr. Bernd Overwien, Department of Political Education. "Against this background, gender orientation is understood as a didactic principle, institutional discrimination is seen as a structural feature of society to be questioned, and alternatives to it are worked out." For political education in schools, Overwien sees "considerable catching up to do, compared also with extracurricular political education, since gender studies is still too little perceived in its analytical and constructive function."

The effects of inequalities and incompatibilities between different social collectives and forms of practice can be exacerbated by gender. But at the same time, there is also a moment of change in the perspective on disparities: for disparities "should also be understood as a challenge for social change and innovation, to recognize the often underestimated and surprising potentials and inventiveness with which actors confront them. As such, social disparities can also be subverted, for example in organizations and institutions, by thwarting social attributions, breaking with traditions, and permanently restructuring ways of acting," says Prof. Dr. Tanja Bogusz Head of the Department of Sociology of Social Disparities.

An updated overview of research on diversity at the University of Kassel can be found on the homepage of the Women's and Equal Opportunities Office: http://www.uni-kassel.de/intranet/themen/gleichstellung-u-vereinbarkeit/frauenbeauftragte/diversity/forschung-zu-diversity.html
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