Centre for Women´s and Gender Studies (FraGes)

Research Activities at the Centre

In 2003 the Centre for Women's and Gender Studies took part in the organisation of a workshop on "A Healthy Work Environment" in Leipzig and organised a two-day conference entitled "Beautiful or Ugly - Standardisation, Deviance and Transgression of Gender Identities". Reports on these events and a summary of the papers, together with information on other research activities of the Centre may be found in a report on the Centre's homepage (www.uni-leipzig.de/~frages).

The Centre has about 45 members (a quarter of them male) of various nationality, belonging to a wide variety of disciplines: the cultural sciences, art history, history, philology, languages, music, sociology, psychology, economics and medicine. The research conducted by members of the Centre may be grouped under three main headings:

1. A number of topics relate to identity - e.g. artistic identity, identity of women writers, images of the body, physical self-view, gender roles. Here research focuses upon how people develop a view of themselves as men or women, for instance, how they employ and present their body (in theatre or sport), how they shape and alter this self-image as man / woman or as boy / girl, and how this affects what they do; moreover, how the desire for children or infertility is linked to people's identities as men or women.
2. A second group of research projects relates to difference. Are there differences between the sexes which are significant for everyday behaviour, employment prospects, family work? Are female managers in business subject to different expectations from male managers? Do they differ in how they perceive themselves and in their style of leadership? Does verbal behaviour and communication within and between the sexes differ? What forms of social interaction do male and female teachers and pupils show in co-educational schools? How do men and women articulate health problems? What inequalities exist in sport, including competitive sport? How can gender mainstreaming serve to heighten awareness of gender differences and shape what is done in all fields of politics and administration?
3. A third set of topics is concerned with the fact that many aspects of gender relations have their roots in our culture. In order to discover these roots, it is necessary on the one hand to conduct research into culture history, for instance on the Amazons of antiquity, the medical guides of the nineteenth century or the gender-related myths that have affected medicine in the past. Here in Leipzig it is also worth studying such things with reference to the GDR and the period before and after 1989. On the other hand, we need to go beyond our own culture, for instance in order to study Asia (masculinity and femininity in Japan, value systems in China), Syria (how Arab boys and girls experience and cope with stress) or the Southern Hemisphere (international demographic policy). We also make comparisons with other European countries (Spain, Eastern Europe).
4. Fourthly our research includes topics relating specifically to women. The writings of Louise Otto Peters are being edited; the 'medicalisation' and 'pathologisation' of women in the history of medicine up to the present day is being researched into. Additional projects concern social pedagogy with reference to girls and feminist perspectives in philosophy.