CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Bourdillon, Florence |
|---|---|
| Title | Lesbian Feminist Collaboration in Informal Women's Networks in East Germany (1978-1989) |
| Summary | This thesis analyses the collaboration processes between lesbian and feminist historical actors and groups in women’s networks in East Germany between 1978 and 1989, asking how this collaboration created new dialogues, knowledge, and networks. East German women’s groups had gathered informally in private friends’ circles since 1978. However, women began organising more visibly in March 1982 after the People’s Chamber passed a military service law that included the conscription of able-bodied women between the ages of 18 and 50. At the same time, in February 1982, the Protestant Evangelical Church sponsored the first public discussion of homosexuality within the church, prompting the formation of several gay and lesbian working groups. The existing historical literature does not centre differences between feminist and lesbian activist perspectives, nor has collaboration between lesbian and feminist groups been examined in detail. Based on materials from three archival institutions, this thesis explores the shared activities between lesbian and feminist activists and groups. The thesis dedicates a chapter to the lesbian group Lesben in der Kirche, whose members are argued to have adopted an American radical lesbian feminist perspective. A series of oral history interviews with former East German lesbian and feminist activists from the Frauenforschungs, Bildungs, und Informationszentrum Archive (FFBIZ Archive, Berlin) are analysed concerning each activist’s childhood, gender socialisation, friendships, and reflections on the women’s and lesbian movement since the Reunification of Germany between 1989 and 1991. By contrast to the existing literature, this thesis recognises lesbian and feminist activists and groups’ agency in producing new discourses regarding gender and sexuality, responding to the first secretary of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (East German Socialist Unity Party, SED), Erich Honecker’s social reforms, including the so-called Muttipolitik, since 1971. Lesbian and feminist activists represented a minority of women in East Germany and were predominately white, urban, and middle-class. Therefore, their discourses represented the interests of their specific social group but not those of racialised, working-class, or rural women in East Germany. |
| Supervisor | de Haan, Francisca |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/bourdillon_florence.pdf |
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