The term bisexuality has been used in different ways over time. For example, it was once used to describe a biological concept that refers to the presence of both male and female sexual characteristics within a person or living being,

1. the simultaneous presence of male and female psychological sexual characteristics and also
2. a sexual inclination that refers to 'both' genders (cf. ibid.: 41), the term is used in public discourse today primarily in this third form. (Uttendörfer 2002)

Freud already "assigned a central role to bisexuality as a bio-psychological phenomenon" and questioned the heterosexual norm through his considerations (ibid.). According to this, there are not only two genders, the psychological gender is not necessarily identical to the 'physical gender' of a person and there is no purely heterosexual desire. Nowadays, different conceptions of bisexuality exist side by side. It is a "'fluid' category" that questions the legal order and rejects the view that "one's identity is derived from sexuality". (ibid.) Furthermore, bisexuality - although controversially discussed from various sides, especially in the 1970s - radically questions the binary of homosexuality and heterosexuality, male and female gender identity and thus all heteronormative thinking.

(Further) literature:

Fritzsche, Bettina (2007): The desire that is not one. Pitfalls when talking about bisexuality. In: Hartmann, Jutta et al. eds.) Heteronormativity. Wiesbaden: Springer. S. 115-131.

Ritter, Kim/Voß, Heinz-Jürgen (2019): Being Bi. Bisexuality between invisibility and chic. Göttingen: Wallstein.

Uttendörfer, Karin: Bisexuality. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler 2002, p. 41.

Equal opportunities describes the socio-political guiding principle that all citizens of a society have the same access conditions - for example to educational institutions - and the same opportunities to participate in society, regardless of factors such as their social background, gender, ethnicity, disability and other factors. A distinction must be made between formal and substantive equal opportunities:

1. Formal equality of opportunity aims to create fundamentally equal starting conditions for all people - for example, through formalised access to vocational training and universities, which consists of clearly defined entry requirements such as the general higher education entrance qualification. Formal equal opportunities, however, neither analyses the reasons why certain people (groups) are (not) able to fulfil access requirements, nor does it claim that corresponding strategies lead to "real" success.
2. The latter is the goal of substantive equality of opportunity, which demands an equal distribution of opportunities for social success for all members of a society regardless of characteristics such as gender or ethnicity. Accordingly, it is not just about creating a level playing field and removing barriers to access. Substantial equality of opportunity is therefore only achieved, for example, when women are no longer prevented from accessing management positions despite having comparable qualifications (see entry Glass ceiling). If previous measures have not been successful, the introduction of quotas, such as the women's quota (see entry Women's quota), is a means of achieving substantial equal opportunities.

(Further) literature:

GenderKompetenzZentrum (2010): Equal Opportunities. Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies, HU Berlin. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Hopf, Wulf/ Edelstein, Benjamin (2018): Equal opportunities between aspiration and reality. Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). Available at: Chancengleichheit zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit | bpb.de. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Sorger, Claudia (2014): Who turns the clock? Gender equality and trade union working time policy. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot. (Review of the theoretical discussion on the terms "equality" and "gender equality")

From a sociological perspective, the term diversity is used to describe the variety of people or groups, which includes both group-specific and individual characteristics. As a rule, diversity includes characteristics such as ethnicity, social origin, gender, sexual identity, but also disability, age, religion, etc., whereby the perspective can be expanded to include a variety of other individual characteristics such as perception or resilience.

Diversity is reflected in the field of corporate management and at the level of institutions as diversity management - it is therefore primarily a concept of organisational and personnel development (cf. Cordes 2010: 929; Diversity Charter). It was originally developed as a US-American management concept for dealing with discrimination and can largely be understood as the result of an anti-discrimination movement (cf. Bruchhagen/Koall 2010: 939). Diversity management describes the long-term and holistic objective of valuing the heterogeneity and diversity of employees and utilising their potential for the economic success of a company. This has an impact on HR processes and policies and therefore on corporate structures and culture, which must be assessed in terms of their adequacy and permeability (see Diversity Charter). In addition, optimal conditions must be created so that all employees can develop their full potential and willingness to perform (cf. Cordes 2010: 929). The overarching idea is therefore that the diversity of employees is expressed in all areas of the company. To implement diversity management, many companies are committed to the economic policy initiative Diversity Charter, which is supported by the German government. Depending on the perspective, a distinction is made between different phases in which diversity management is implemented (see, for example, Diversity Charter; Bruchhagen/Koall 2010: 940f.).

Althoughdiversity management certainly aims at 'gender equality' and a better balance between parenthood and work, so that this must be taken into account in organisational development, diversity management is not a measure specifically geared towards equality for women; rather, ideally it develops positive benefits for all those involved (cf. esp. Cordes 2010: 929f.). Diversity management is criticised in particular for its focus on profitability. Diversity is merely subordinated to neoliberal thinking and does not serve to reduce inequality, but rather to utilise resources. (cf. Hafen/Gretler Heusser 2008)

(Further) literature:

Bruchhagen, Verena/Koall, Iris (2010): Managing Diversity: A (critical) concept for the productive utilisation of social differences. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 939-946.

Diversity Charter: Diversity Management. Available at:http://www.charta-der-vielfalt.de/diversity/diversity-management.html(last accessed: 17.04.2015).

Cordes, Mechthild (2010): Equality policies: From the advancement of women to gender mainstreaming. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 924-932.

Frieß, Wiebke/Mucha, Anna/Rastetter, Daniela (2019): Diversity management and its contexts. Opladen: Budrich.

Hafen, Martin/Gretler Heusser, Simone (2008): Diversity management - means of anti-discrimination, neoliberal phenomenon or old wine in new bottles? In: Group Dynamics 39, 225-237.

'Doing gender' is a concept that emerged from interaction theory sociology and was developed by Candace West and Don Zimmermann in 1987. The creation of gender affiliation and identity is therefore an everyday and unavoidable process, i.e. it is embedded in everyday situations and structures them at the same time (cf. Holzleithner 2002: 72; Gildemeister 2019: 410f). However, this process of social construction of gender is usually not visible or is not perceived by those involved, as gender is often localised in nature, i.e. is considered to be biologically given and thus taken for granted.

In order to overcome this biologistic view, West and Zimmermann distinguish between the categories sex (classification of bodily sex at birth based on socially determined biological characteristics), sex category (social attribution of sex to 'male' and 'female' as a result of the application of these characteristics) and gender (ability of the individual to act in such a way that their own actions/appearance correspond to the social attribution of sex) (cf. West/Zimmermann 1987: 131ff.; Faulstich-Wieland 2004: 177; Gildemeister 2019: 413;). Gildemeister (2019: 413) therefore also describes the latter as "intersubjective validation in interaction processes through behaviour and actions appropriate to the situation", which in turn corresponds to the sex category adopted. Hirschauer (1994: 672) has therefore identified three "axiomatic basic assumptions" in relation to gender: (1) the assumption of constancy, i.e. the lifelong validity of a person's gender affiliation, (2) the assumption of naturalness and (3) dichotomy, according to which only two polar genders, male and female, are assumed (Hirschauer 1994; cf. also Faulstich-Wieland 2004: 179).

The concept was developed against the background of sociological analyses of transsexuality, for which Harold Garfinkel's so-called "Agnes Study" of 1967 is fundamental. Using the example of the transsexual Agnes - Agnes decided to transition at the age of 17 - he was able to illustrate what happens when the everyday two-gender order of a society is 'damaged'. He showed how "presuppositional" it is to recognise a person as male or - as in Agnes' case - female (Garfinkel 1967). There are social ideas regarding 'successful' masculinity and femininity (cf. Holzleithner 2002: 72), which are to be fulfilled in interactions through gender-typical practices - for example in the form of facial expressions, gestures, posture, language, etc. "Gender is acquired in the context of a routinised, permanently repeated practice. This practice consists of activities that manifest themselves on the level of representation and perception as manifestations of male and female 'ways of being'." (Holzleithner 2002: 72) If this identification of other people as male or female is not successful and the pattern of binary gender is broken, this usually causes strong irritation and uncertainty. Garfinkel therefore assumed an omnipresence or relevance of gender (cf. Garfinkel 1967: 118): According to this, gender affiliation and bisexuality are taken for granted in the everyday knowledge of our society and are not questioned further (cf. also Wetterer 2010: 126). This also includes the assumption that this has always been the case and is the case in all cultures (cf. ibid.).

In this context, the study by Suzanne J. Kessler and Wendy McKenna "Gender. An ethnomethodological Approach" from 1978, in which they explicitly speak of the socially constructed nature of gender. Not only do they examine the practices of gender construction of transsexuals, they also ask for the first time how "children appropriate the rules of the cultural system of binary gender" (Wetterer 2010: 128). This happens through the attribution of gender to a person: if a person has already been identified as male or female, all further actions are seen in the light of this supposedly 'natural' gender. This shows how powerful the cultural system of binary gender is. West and Zimmermann therefore assumed that it is unavoidable not to "do" "gender" (cf. Gildemeister 2010: 143). This view is partly questioned against the backdrop of other powerful social attributions, classification features that structure perception such as race and class , and in the context of the 'undoing gender' approach (Hirschauer 1994).

(Further) literature:

Faulstich-Wieland, Hannelore (2004): Doing Gender: Constructivist Contributions. In: Glaser, Edith/Klika, Dorle/Prengel, Annedore (eds.): Handbuch Gender und Education Studies. Bad Heilbrunn: Julius Klinkhardt, pp. 175-191.

Garfinkel, Harold (1967): Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Gildemeister, Regine (2019): Doing Gender: a micro-theoretical approach to the category of gender. In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer. S. 409-417.

Holzleithner, Elisabeth (2002): Doing Gender. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 72f.

Hirschauer, Stefan (1994): The social reproduction of bisexuality. In: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, vol. 46, pp. 668-692.

Kessler, Suzanne J./Mckenna, Wendy (1978): Gender: An ethnomethodological approach. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wetterer, Angelika (2010): Construction of gender: modes of reproduction of bisexuality. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 126-136.

West, Candace/Zimmermann, Don H. (1987): Doing Gender. In: Gender & Society, Issue 2/1, pp. 125-151.

Although the term feminism was first coined around 1880 by the French women's rights activist Hubertine Auclert, from a retrospective perspective, there have always been feminist objections to gender-related experiences and structures of injustice. One example of this is Christine de Pizan with her work The City of Women from 1404/05 (cf. Gerhard 2018: 7f., 11). Other pioneers of feminism - as a movement that was fuelled by experiences of oppression and exploitation - include the French women's rights activist Olympe de Gouges with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen (1791) and the African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth with her speech Ain't I a woman? (1851), to name just a few early feminist voices. However, it was not until the middle of the 19th century that women's associations came together as part of the European bourgeois revolutions and the anti-slavery movement in the USA, which were largely united and systematically dedicated to the so-called 'women's question' and demanded access to politics, education, working life and self-determination (cf. e.g. Karl 2020; Karsch 2016; Thiessen 2010: 37). The starting point of feminism is fundamentally the criticism of the "identification" (Thiessen 2010: 38) of the female subject as a group that is inferior and therefore subordinate to men. The aim of feminism is therefore to change the social position of women and all the resulting disadvantages (see Becker-Schmidt 2010: 65 for more detail on the "double socialisation of women"), particularly with regard to strongly gendered fields such as production, reproduction and regeneration. This also includes analysing the political, economic and social processes that have brought about or continue to bring about the oppression or disadvantage of women. Regina Becker-Schmidt (2010) therefore describes gender relations as an "ensemble of arrangements [...] in which women and men are related to each other through forms of division of labour, social dependency relationships and exchange processes." (ibid.: 69)

Over time, there have been changes, different emphases and target groups within feminism: While in the 1980s, for example, ecofeminist positions were primarily advocated, which examined categories such as 'nature' and 'woman' in terms of their structural connections and highlighted the associated relations of exploitation, these images of femininity, which were seen as essentialist and naturalising, were criticised within the feminist critique of natural science and through the increasing influence of post-structuralist concepts from the mid-1980s onwards (cf. Thiessen 2010: 39f.). Feminism certainly brought with it new exclusions and "hegemonies" (ibid.: 40), which were criticised by Judith Butler (1990), among others: Not only was it noted that the category of 'woman' was assumed to be fundamental and that differences between women or other marginalisations were not addressed, but at the same time other characteristics such as race, class or ethnicity , some of which interact with gender, are not taken into account (cf. in more detail Thiessen 2010: 40f.). Current feminist approaches therefore face the particular challenge of increasingly focussing on intersectional perspectives.

As there is no one feminist theory, but rather different positions and theoretical directions within feminism, it is more appropriate to speak of feminisms than of feminism. Depending on the focus when considering feminist movements, there are different ways and attempts to systematise feminisms with their concerns and demands. One common method of systematisation is to divide them into so-called waves. On a global level, the so-called first wave of feminism is categorised from 1840, the second wave followed from 1960 and the third wave began in 1990. In addition to the categorisation of feminist movements into waves, the categorisation into difference or equality feminism is another common way of sorting them (see Holland-Cunz 2018, Lenz 2018). In addition, it is generally necessary to "distinguish between feminism as a critical social theory and feminism as a social movement of women [and emancipative men]" (Gerhard/Pommerenke/Wischermann 2008: 9).

The aim of establishing women's and gender studies at universities and other further education institutions is therefore to promote the transfer of theory and practice as well as the dissemination, expansion and systematisation of feminist theory formation (cf. Thiessen 2010: 38). Sigrid Metz-Göckel (2003) therefore also refers to feminism as "theory" and the women's movement as "practice" (cf. ibid.: 170ff.; quoted from Thiessen 2010: 38).

Even if, from the perspective of feminism, there have been gains in terms of education, equality, human rights and sexual self-determination, inequalities, exclusions and discrimination continue to exist on a structural and institutional level and need to be addressed.

(Further) literature:

Becker-Schmidt, Regina (2010): Double socialisation of women: Divergences and bridges between private and working life. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 65-74.

Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) (2019): We are Feminists! A brief history of women's rights. With a foreword by Margarete Stokowski. Bonn.

Butler, Judith (1990): Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York et al: Routledge.

Böll. Topic 2/2018: Democracy needs feminism. Available online at: https://www.boell.de/de/2018/07/02/boellthema-22018-demokratie-braucht-feminismus. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Gerhard, Ute (2018): Women's movement and feminism. A history since 1789. 3rd, updated ed. Munich: C.H. Beck.

Gerhard, Ute/ Pommerenke, Petra/ Wischermann, Ulla (2008): Introduction. In: this. (ed.): Classics of feminist theory. Basic Texts Volume I (1789-1919). Königstein/Taunus: Ulrike Helmer, pp. 9-13.

Holland-Cunz, Barbara (2018): Was ihr zusteht. A brief history of feminism. In: APuZ 17/2018 [(Anti-)Feminism], pp. 4-11. Available online at: https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/267949/anti-feminismus/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Karl, Michaela (2020): The history of the women's movement. 6th, updated and expanded edition. Ditzingen: Reclam.

Karsch, Margret (2016): Feminism. History - Positions. Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).

Lenz, Ilse (2019): Feminism: ways of thinking, differences, debates. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 231-241.

Lenz, Ilse (2019): International and transnational women's movements: Differences, networks, changes. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 901-910.

Lenz, Ilse (2018): From care work to #metoo: News on feminist issues and debates in Germany. In: APuZ 17/2018 [(Anti-)Feminism], pp. 20-27. Available online at: https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/267949/anti-feminismus/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Thiessen, Barbara (2010): Feminism: differences and controversies. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 37-44.Schulz, Kristina (2019): Women's movements in German-speaking countries: Gender and social movement. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 911-920.

Originating from the New Women's Movement in the 1970s, women's studies initially saw itself as biased research by women about women and as a critique of science in the sense of the exclusion of women as research objects and as scientists (cf. Brüns 2002: 120). The aims were (1) the undermining of androcentric structures in higher education, (2) the reconstruction of female traditions in the specialised sciences and (3) the question of the asymmetry of social gender relations and of "symbolic constructions of femininity and gender" (ibid.: 121).

From the 1980s onwards, however, there was a growing awareness that 'women' do not exist as a self-contained group. For example, there are differences on the levels of race and class, which result in considerable social inequalities. The focus of women's studies today is therefore more generally on the empirical, theoretical and ideology-critical analysis of the conditions that cause inequalities between the sexes (cf. ibid.: 119f.). As gender relations are analysed in a similar way to gender studies and gender research, there are certainly overlaps and similarities with regard to the object of research; here, too, doing gender is the subject of critical debate (cf. ibid.: 120). Nevertheless, within women's studies, sex is thought of less as a "naturalisation effect of social gender", but primarily as a "basic category" (ibid.). For this reason, women's studies is often accused of essentialising gender differences.

(Further) literature:

Brüns, Elke (2002): Women's Studies. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler 2002, pp. 119-121.

Frey Steffen, Therese (2017): Gender. Ditzingen: Reclam, from which esp. pp. 31ff.

Karsch, Margret (2016): Feminism. History - Positions. Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education, from p. 150ff.

Metz-Göckel, Sigrid (2019): Women's higher education movement: self-empowerment and criticism of science. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 1033-1042.

The introduction and application of so-called women's quotas in the fields of public service, science, the private sector and politics aims to "give women the same access to key positions as men" (Hendrix 2019: 94). At the suggestion of the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection, Heiko Maas (SPD), and the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Manuela Schwesig (SPD), the Bundestag voted by a large majority on 6 March 2015 in favour of the draft law on women's and gender quotas for the private and public sectors.

The women's quota is a political response to the continuing discrimination against women when it comes to promotion to management positions in companies; despite having the same qualifications as men, they remain at middle management levels and are prevented from advancing for various reasons (for the causes, see also the entry on theglass ceiling). Since the introduction of the first law for the equal participation of women and men in management positions (FüPoG 2015), there has been an increase in the proportion of women in management positions at German companies: whereas the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of the 200 largest companies in Germany was only 18.4 per cent in 2014, this figure was 30.4 per cent in 2021. And while the proportion of women on the management boards of these companies was just 5.4 per cent in 2014, it was 14.7 per cent in 2021 (see Kirsch/Sondergeld/Wrohlich 2022; Statista 2021: 4f.). In addition, there has also been an increase in the proportion of women on supervisory boards (34.7 per cent in 2021) and management boards (17.5 per cent in 2021) of DAX companies in Germany (cf. Statista 2021: 11f.).

The women's quota is mandatory for new appointments to supervisory boards and at the upper management levels of listed companies and companies subject to full co-determination in the private sector. Since 1 January 2016, a so-called fixed quota of 30 percent has been binding for appointments to supervisory boards. Since the introduction of FüPoG, companies that are either subject to co-determination or listed on the stock exchange must set targets for the Management Board, Supervisory Board and middle and senior management positions. These must be set by the companies themselves based on the status quo, whereby the former are obliged to report publicly on this together with the implementation (see Die Bundesregierung 2015). In the public sector, a corresponding quota of 30 per cent has been in place since 2016; by 2025, management positions are to be filled equally (cf. BMFSFJ 2022).

With the Second Management Positions Act (FüPoG II), further binding requirements have applied to the management and supervisory bodies of German companies since August 2021:

• Minimum participation

"The proven fixed quota for supervisory boards from the FüPoG is supplemented by a minimum participation requirement for management boards with the FüPoG II. In future, listed companies and companies with parity co-determination must appoint at least one woman to the board if their board consists of more than three people." (BMFSFJ 2021a)

• Mandatory regulations on targets and reporting obligations

"Since the FüPoG 2015 came into force, companies have had to set targets for the future participation of women at the top management levels, i.e. for the supervisory board, executive board and the first and second management levels. The target was often zero. This is no longer acceptable now that FüPoG II has come into force. In future, companies will have to give reasons if they set a target of zero women on the Management Board. A corresponding reporting obligation has been introduced in commercial accounting law." (BMFSFJ 2021a)

Companies that do not report a target figure or do not provide a justification for the zero target figure face a considerable fine (see BMFSFJ 2021a). With the introduction of FüPoG II, the statutory quota regulation has finally been extended to the composition of the management boards of DAX companies.

In addition to the main areas of application of quota regulations in the private and public sectors, "quotas for women are [also] being discussed in politics [...] as a means of combating the underrepresentation of women in parliaments. The main problem is the nomination of candidates in political parties" (Hendrix 2019: 998). The gradual introduction of a women's quota within the CDU is currently being discussed.

To find out more about corresponding quotas in science, see the entry on the cascade model.

(Further) literature:

Federal Law Gazette Volume 2021 Part I No. 51: Act to supplement and amend the regulations for the equal participation of women and men in management positions in the private and public sectors. Bonn. 11 August 2021. last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Law Gazette Volume 2015 Part I No.17: Act on the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and Public Sector. Bonn. 30 April 2015. last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) (2021): Women in management positions: The quota works. Press release from 20 October 2021. Available at: https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Archiv/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2021/1020_Fuepog.html?nn=17107052. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2022): More women in management positions in the public sector. 10.02.2022. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/themen/gleichstellung/frauen-und-arbeitswelt/quote-oeffentlicher-dienst. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2021a): More women in management positions in the private sector (Zweites Führungspositionen-Gesetz FüPoG II). 02.11.2021. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/themen/gleichstellung/frauen-und-arbeitswelt/quote-privatwitschaft/mehr-frauen-in-fuehrungspositionen-in-der-privatwirtschaft-78562. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2021b): Implementation status of the measures of the Federal Government's Gender Equality Strategy by objective. 24.09.2021. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/resource/blob/186044/e73f3b976eb878159250fa2471bd5436/umsetzungsstand-der-massnahmen-der-gleichstellungsstrategie-der-bundesregierung-nach-zielen-data.pdf. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2020): Equality and participation. Women and politics. 31.03.2020. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/themen/gleichstellung/gleichstellung-und-teilhabe/frauen-und-politik/frauen-und-politik-80454. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

The Federal Government: Equality. The women's quota is coming. Status: 27.03.2015. Available at: https: //www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/die-frauenquote-kommt-321070. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Hendrix, Ulla (2019): Women's quota: between legitimacy, efficiency and power. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 993-1002.

Kirsch, Anja/ Sondergeld, Virginia/ Wrohlich, Katharina (2022): Significantly more female board members in large companies - participation requirement already seems to be working. DIW Weekly Report 3/ 2022, p. 22-33. Available at: https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.833645.de/publikationen/wochenberichte/2022_03_2/deutlich_mehr_vorstaendinnen_in_grossen_unternehmen_-_beteiligungsgebot_scheint_bereits_zu_wirken.html. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Klammer, Ute/Menke, Katrin (2020): Gender data report. Information on Political Education/izp 1/2020 [Gender Democracy], pp. 20-33. Available at: https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/izpb/307470/geschlechterdemokratie/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Statista (2021): Women's quota. Dossier. Available at: https: //de.statista.com/statistik/studie/id/9993/dokument/frauenquote-statista-dossier/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

In German, there is no equivalent for the English term - initially referring exclusively to grammatical gender - which is translated as 'social gender' (cf. Wende 2002:141). The term 'gender' makes it clear that a person's gender identity is not innate, i.e. biologically determined, but rather represents a reciprocal process of appropriation characterised by attributions (cf. ibid.; see also the concept ofdoing gender). Accordingly, masculinity and femininity are not rooted in nature, but are historically and temporally constructed (cf. ibid.), i.e. they are to be regarded as a result of historical development processes and social practice. This becomes clear in a historical or spatial comparison. For example, not all societies recognise only two genders, prescribe gender as lifelong and assign it on the basis of gender characteristics (cf. Wetterer 2010: 127). Accordingly, Carol Hagemann-White's "null hypothesis" (2001) also states that there is no dichotomy prescribed by nature, but rather different gender constructions that diverge depending on the culture (cf. ibid.: 30). While for a long time a distinction was made between sex as a supposedly biological gender and gender as a social gender, this separation has been questioned since Joan W. Scott (1988) and Judith Butler (1990) at the latest: Thus it is always, i.e. also with sex, about socio-cultural attributions, so that the 'biological' sex is not the basis or antecedent to this, but equally like gender is a consequence of social practice and is therefore subject to cultural changes.

(Further) literature:

Butler, Judith (1990): Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York et al: Routledge.

Hagemann-White, Carol (2001): We are not born two-gendered ... In: Hark, Sabine (ed.): Dis/Continuities: Femnistische Theorie.Opladen: Leske + Budrich. S. 24-34.

Scott, Joan W. (1988): Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia University Press.

Villa, Paula-Irene (2019): Sex - Gender: Co-constitution instead of opposition: In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer. S. 23-33.

Wende, Waltraud (2002): Gender/Geschlecht. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, pp. 141-142.

Wetterer, Angelika (2010): Construction of gender. Reproduction modes of bisexuality. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (eds.): Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung. Theory, Methods, Empiricism. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 126-136.

The term gender competence is not in itself unproblematic, as it suggests that this is a learnable technique "for 'dealing correctly with gender'" (Rendtorff 2011: 223) in the sense of examples of application. Barbara Rendtorff (2011: 223) therefore also notes that "dealing with the effects of gender relations is not a question of behavioural strategy, but first and foremost a matter of awareness, (self-)attention, reflection and, last but not least, knowledge of social contexts and stereotypical attributions[...]" (ibid.). (The term gender sensitivity or - in relation to pedagogical contexts - gender-sensitive or gender-reflective pedagogy is therefore more suitable, as it primarily aims to develop the participants' ability to reflect: In addition to an appropriate attitude with which other people are encountered in educational contexts - this includes in particular the recognition of the diversity of gendered ways of existing as well as disadvantages and power relations between women and men - such pedagogy requires knowledge and methodological-didactic considerations (cf. in detail Debus et al. 2012: 10ff.). Following Kunert-Zier (2005), Budde and Venth (2010: 23f.) therefore also use the terms "ability", "(gender) knowledge" and "willingness". Accordingly, a corresponding pedagogy is based above all on a gender theory: knowledge of social gender relations and stereotypes, their (historical) development, the resulting inequalities and the constructed nature of femininity(ies) and masculinity(ies) are fundamental for a corresponding reflective competence. Although there is no 'fixed repertoire' of behavioural rules and strategies for gender-sensitive/conscious/reflective action, e.g. for the field of school, reference can be made to contact points that provide information in the sense of gender competence in educational settings and offer approaches for such action:

• QUA-LIS NRW (State Institute for Schools). The main tasks of QUA-LIS include the promotion and implementation of gender-sensitive education, the aims of which include, for example, the avoidance of disadvantageous gender stereotypes in schools and the consideration of gender diversity. QUA-LIS is guided in particular by the "Guidelines for ensuring equal opportunities through gender-sensitive education and upbringing" of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (KMK) (2016).
• Cliché-free. Initiative on career and study choices (sponsored by: BMBF and BMFSFJ)
• Dissens - Institute for Education and Research e.V. (recognised sponsor: bpb)
• QUEER FORMAT. Queer Education Centre

(Further) literature:

Budde, Jürgen/Venth, Angela (2010): Gender competence for lifelong learning. Designing educational processes in a gender-orientated way: Bielefeld: Bertelsmann.

Debus, Katharina/Könnecke, Bernard/Schwerma, Klaus/Stuve, Olav (2012): Gender-reflective work with boys at school. Conceptual foundations and conclusions from a further education programme. In: Dissens e.V. & Dies (eds.): Gender-reflective work with boys at school. Texts on pedagogy and further training in boys' work, gender and education. Berlin: Dissens e.V., pp. 10-16. Available at: https://www.dissens.de/geschlechterverhaeltnisse. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Kunert-Zier, Margitta (2005): Education of the sexes. Developments, concepts and gender competence in socio-educational fields. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Rendtorff, Barbara (2011): Gender competence [Keywords and terms from gender research]. In: Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Wecker, Verena (eds.): Geschlechterforschung. Theorien, Thesen, Themen zur Einführung , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, p. 223.

In the Federal Government's Second Gender Equality Report (2017), the gender pay gap (gender-specific pay gap) is named as a relevant indicator for gender-related inequalities in gainful employment and care work alongside the gender lifetime earnings gap, gender pension gap, gender time gap and gender care gap (also: gender unpaid gap) (cf. BMFSFJ 2017: 93ff.). The gender pay gap (GPG) refers to the persistent percentage pay gap in relation to the average gross hourly earnings of women and men, despite the advancement of women, equality and gender mainstreaming. Since 2006, the quadrennial Structure of Earnings Survey, which is analysed by the Federal Statistical Office, has been the EU-wide data basis.

According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, the average gross hourly wage of women in Germany - there are considerable differences between the old and newer federal states - was 23 per cent lower than that of men in 2006 and 20 per cent lower in 2018 ("unadjusted" gender pay gap), which puts Germany in one of the bottom places in an EU comparison (see Klammer&Menke 2020: 29; Federal Statistical Office 2022). This pay gap can be considered on the basis of various factors, which take effect to varying degrees depending on the situation and interact with each other (cf. BMFSJ: 4, 35f.):

1. Women are more often employed in low-paid occupations, especially in the service sector, more often work part-time and are rarely found in management positions - this is partly due to the nature of the jobs they perform and partly due to structural reasons, which can be summarised by terms such as 'glass ceiling' or the 'leaky pipeline' can be used to describe them. For example, job requirements in terms of qualifications and leadership skills are still strongly segregated by gender.
2. But even with comparable work and equivalent qualifications, women earn an average of 6 per cent less than men ("adjusted" gender pay gap, 2018 data), which is often explained by other wage-related aspects - such as more frequent and longer career breaks due to family leave (see Federal Statistical Office 2022; Klammer&Menke 2020: 29).
3. At the same time, the lower valuation of professions primarily chosen by women - for example in the education and care sector - plays a role. This can be seen as a product of the separation of the public and private fields in the course of the emergence of bourgeois society in the transition from the 18th to the 19th century and thus the lower valuation of all work that serves the reproduction and regeneration of society's members.

(Further) literature:

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2017): Second Gender Equality Report of the Federal Government. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/service/publikationen/zweiter-gleichstellungsbericht-119796. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2009): Pay inequality between women and men in Germany. Dossier. Berlin 2009. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/service/publikationen/entgeltungleichheit-zwischen-frauen-und-maennern-in-deutschland-80408. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Klammer, Ute/Menke, Katrin (2020): Gender data report. Information on Political Education/izp 1/2020 [Gender Democracy], pp. 20-33. Available at: https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/izpb/307470/geschlechterdemokratie/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Lillemeier, Sarah (2019): Gender Pay Gap: on the social and financial devaluation of "women's professions". In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 1013-1021.

Federal Statistical Office (2022): Press release no. 088 of 07 March 2022. available at: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2022/03/PD22_088_621.html. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Federal Statistical Office: Gender Pay Gap 2020: Germany remains one of the EU laggards. Available at: https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Thema/Bevoelkerung-Arbeit-Soziales/Arbeitsmarkt/GenderPayGap.html. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Zinke, Guido (2020): Gender inequalities: Gender Pay Gap. Federal Agency for Civic Education. Available at: https://www.bpb.de/themen/arbeit/arbeitsmarktpolitik/318555/geschlechterungleichheiten-gender-pay-gap/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

"The institutionalisation of German-language gender studies is closely linked to the history of women's and gender studies. The subject of gender studies is characterised by an interdisciplinary research perspective that places the category of gender at the centre of scientific analyses" (Brand&Sabisch 2019: 1044). From the 1990s onwards, the subjects formerly known as "women's studies" or "women's studies" were increasingly renamed "gender studies" or "gender studies" (cf. ibid.). As gender studies is based on a relational understanding of the category of gender, its focus is on the emergence and development of gender relations and gender orders in the fields of society, culture and knowledge (cf. Hark 1998).

The category of gender is understood as a social construct that is subject to historical and cultural changes, taking into account the roles, functions and attributes attributed to both women* and men*. The term sex or gender is therefore "not (only) understood as an individual characteristic or labelling of a person, but as a social relationship within politically and historically grown and changing social structures" (Rendtorff 2011: 224). Accordingly, the sex/gender system developed by the anthropologist Gayle Rubin represented a fundamental model of gender studies for a long time (cf. Feldmann/Schülting 2002: 144) - Judith Butler's (1990) thesis that sex is also discursively constructed, on the other hand, was only later incorporated into her own work (cf. Funk 2002: 156).

Accordingly, the central object of research in gender studies is the analysis of hierarchical gender relations - for example in relation to gender difference, gender roles and gender identity - as well as their manifestation in various areas and fields of society. Asymmetries in gender relations in different areas of society are also taken into consideration, but the primary interest is in the question of the "function", "constitution" and "formation" of gender difference (cf. Feldmann/Schülting 2002: 143). Despite a common theoretical basis and numerous overlaps, the approaches in gender studies can diverge depending on the disciplinary focus.

Depending on the perspective, gender studies and gender research are either used synonymously, or the latter is understood as an orientation specific to the German area (cf. Funk 2002: 154f.), which, however, has other research objects and differs with regard to the institutional context (on the distinction between gender research and gender studies, see Hahn 2002: 156f.). Due to its autonomy, the term gender is often perceived as more flexible than the German term 'Geschlecht', which includes both sex - i.e. the 'biological' sex - and gender ( cf. ibid.: 157). Although gender studies is increasingly perceived as an independent discipline, it remains difficult to speak of "the" gender studies, as it is a field of study whose "theory development is still very much in flux and [whose] knowledge foundation [...] is not canonised" (Rendtorff/Mahs/Wecker 2011: 8).

(Further) literature:

Brand, Maximiliane/Sabisch, Katja (2019): Gender Studies: History, establishment and practical perspectives of the subject. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbook of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 1043-1051.

Feldmann, Doris/Schülting, Sabine (2002): Gender Studies/Gender-Forschung. In : Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - Persons - Basic Concepts . ed. by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, pp. 143-145.

Funk, Julika (2002): Gender studies. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - Persons - Basic Concepts . ed. by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, pp. 155-156.

Frey Steffen, Therese (2017): Gender. Ditzingen: Reclam, from which esp. pp. 31ff.

Hahn, Barbara (2002): Gender research and gender studies. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - Persons - Basic Concepts . ed. by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 156f.

Hark, Sabine (1998): Disciplinary crossings. (Im)Possibilities of transdisciplinary women's and gender studies. In: Potsdamer Studien zur Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung H.2 (1998) (new edition 2001), pp. 7-22. Available at: https://www.genderopen.de/bitstream/handle/25595/453/Hark_1998_Querg%C3%A4nge.pdf?sequence=1. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.Mendel, Iris (2015): WiderStandPunkte. Contested knowledge, feminist critique of science and critical social sciences. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Rendtorff, Barbara (2011): Keywords and terms from gender studies. In: Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Wecker, Verena (eds.): Geschlechterforschung. Theorien, Thesen, Themen zur Einführung , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, pp. 220-233, here pp. 224f.

Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Wecker, Verena (2011): Introduction. In: this. (ed.), Gender Studies. Theories, theses, topics for introduction. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, pp. 7-9.

Gender mainstreaming was first called for in development cooperation at the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985. It was enshrined as a binding recommendation in the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and in 1999 the European Union included gender mainstreaming in the Amsterdam Treaty. In Germany, gender mainstreaming is binding for federal policy and federal administration in all fields due to the signing of this treaty (cf. Wegrzyn 2014: para. 1).

The commitment to gender mainstreaming as an equality policy strategy means that all planned measures, such as action programmes and political concepts in politics and in other organisations and institutions, must be examined and evaluated in advance with regard to their impact on gender equality (cf. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung; Stiegler 2010), which recognises that women and men continue to have different opportunities to participate (cf. Wegrzyn 2014: para. 2). Therefore, the different life situations and interests of women and men and the effects on both genders must be taken into account. If there are potentially illegitimate negative effects for one gender, then measures for equality must be taken first (cf. Holzleithner 2002: 143). Cordes (2010: 928) therefore also refers to gender mainstreaming as an "equality impact assessment".

Gender mainstreaming is a supplement to traditional approaches to gender equality policy, so that separate anti-discrimination provisions and regulations for the advancement of women continue to exist. While gender equality officers are primarily responsible for the implementation of gender equality policy, gender mainstreaming, according to Cordes (2010: 929), is fundamentally a "joint task" that also involves the political-administrative level and makes politicians responsible. However, a prerequisite for successful implementation is gender sensitivity and gender competence (cf. ibid.), which requires not only knowledge of social power relations and structures, but above all the attitude and reflective competence of the actors involved. For this reason, and due to the risk of perpetuating gender stereotypes, feminists in particular have repeatedly expressed doubts about the success of this concept - Wetterer (2005) even speaks of a "redramatisation of the gender distinction" (cited in Stiegler 2010: 934). For more detailed criticism of this concept, see Wegrzyn 2014: paragraph 3.

(Further) literature:

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BFFSFJ) (2021): Gender mainstreaming. Status: 28.12.2021. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/themen/gleichstellung/gleichstellung-und-teilhabe/strategie-gender-mainstreaming/gender-mainstreaming-80436. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb): Gender mainstreaming. Available at: https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/lexika/politiklexikon/17522/gender-mainstreaming/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Cordes, Mechthild (2010): Gender equality policies: From the advancement of women to gender mainstreaming. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 924-932.

Döge, Peter (2002): "Managing Gender". Gender mainstreaming as the organisation of gender relations. APuZ 33-34/2002 [Geschlechter-Gerechtigkeit/Gender], pp. 9-16. Available at: https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/26758/geschlechter-br-gerechtigkeit-gender/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Holzleithner, Elisabeth (2002): Gender mainstreaming. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 142f.

Klammer, Ute (2019): Gender equality policy: where gender research finds its practical realisation. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 983-992.

Pinl, Claudia (2002): Gender mainstreaming - an underestimated concept. APuZ 33-34/2002 [Geschlechter-Gerechtigkeit/Gender], pp. 3-5. Available at: https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/26758/geschlechter-br-gerechtigkeit-gender/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Rendtorff, Barbara (2011): Gender Mainstreaming [Keywords and terms from gender research]. In: Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Wecker, Verena (eds.): Geschlechterforschung. Theories, theses, topics for introduction. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, p. 223f.

Stiegler, Barbara (2010): Gender mainstreaming: progress or regression in gender policy? In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 933-938.

Wegrzyn, Eva (2014): Gender mainstreaming. In: Gender Glossar / Gender Glossary (4 paragraphs). Available at: https://www.gender-glossar.de/post/gender-mainstreaming. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

The term gender-reflective language not only means becoming aware of gender-related formulations when writing and speaking, but also questioning them in everyday language use. The following terms are often used synonymously with the term "gender-reflective language": gender/gender-sensitive, gender/gender-equitable or gender/gender-conscious language. The demand to write and speak in a gender-reflective way is based on the linguistic-sociological premise that language and society are in a complex relationship of interaction. Language, as a central component of social reality, can therefore not only reflect inequality structures in society, but also perpetuate or break them. This is where feminist linguistics picks up on the exclusive use of the generic masculine with its critique of language. The fixation on the generic masculine in everyday language and writing is seen as problematic because it perpetuates an androcentric world view in which man(s) are set as the social norm. Not only would women be made invisible, but gender diversity beyond the binary would also be negated. As language can influence the consciousness and imagination of members of a society, language can become the medium of social inclusion and exclusion mechanisms and thus not "merely" lead to discrimination in speech and writing. The use of gender-reflective formulations in writing and speaking thus also goes hand in hand with the demand for (linguistic) gender equality. Due to the various forms of discrimination that can result from the use of the generic masculine, many universities and other institutions have already developed guidelines that show how non-discriminatory and gender-inclusive writing and speaking can be organised.

Examples of guidelines:

• Project Genderleicht.de. Website of the Association of Women Journalists (2020)
• More convincing language. Guidelines for gender-sensitive language from the University of Cologne (2020)
• Language is diverse. HU Berlin guidelines for gender-sensitive language (2019)

Some examples of wording are listed below:

• Neutral formulations: In many cases, it is possible to replace the masculine form with gender-neutral generic terms, such as using a substantive adjective: the students, the employees, the applicants, etc., or to refer to the thing instead of the person: e.g. the participation limit instead of the participant limit.
• Pair formulations/appellation: At the same time, it is possible to address women explicitly or to address both men and women: "Dear participants".
• Capitalisation of the internal I and of 'R' and 'N': e.g. MitarbeiterInnen instead of "Mitarbeiter", jedeR instead of "jeder", eineN BeschäftigteN instead of "einen Beschäftigten".
• Slash: The separation of the feminine and masculine form by the slash sign has become established: e.g. Mitarbeiter/innen or Mitarbeiter-/innen, Schüler-/innen or Schüler/innen.
• Underline (gender gap) _ or Asterix (gender asterisk) *: Language that refers exclusively to women and men, i.e. to a so-called 'culture of bisexuality', is still discriminatory for all those people who do not fit into this pattern and do not have a clear gender identity. In order to maintain thisheteronormativityit has become established, especially in queer studies and gender studies, to use the underscore or to write with an asterisk: die Schüler_innen or Schüler*innen. Sweden has also adopted a third personal pronoun, which adds 'hen' to 'he' (han) and 'she' (hon).
• Colon :: Like the gender asterisk or the underscore, the colon stands for gender diversity: the students.

(Further) literature:

Günther, Susanne (2019): Linguistics and gender studies: Does our language convey an androcentric world view? In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.), Handbook of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 571-589.

Hornscheidt, Lann (2012): feministische w_orte. ein lern-, denk- und handlungsbuch zu sprache und diskriminierung, gender studies und feministischer linguistik. Frankfurt a. M.: Brandes & Apsel.

Nübling, Damaris (2020). About sensitivities? The genders in language. In: Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Warmuth, Anne-Dorothee (eds.): Gender confusions: What we know, what we believe and what is not true. Frankfurt/New York: Campus, pp. 82-89.

Rendtorff, Barbara (2011). Geschlechterregerechte (geschlechterbewusste) Sprache [Keywords and terms from gender studies]. In: Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Wecker, Verena (eds.): Geschlechterforschung. Theories, theses, topics for introduction. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, p. 225.

The term ' glass ceiling' refers to an invisible barrier that women are often confronted with due to structural and ideological reasons in the course of their careers, despite their high qualifications, when they want to move up into upper management, while male colleagues with comparable qualifications usually 'succeed' in doing so. In addition to the lack of access to informal networks, the causes are seen firstly and above all in stereotypical role perceptions, according to which women are supposedly less suitable for such jobs due to family obligations and certain characteristics attributed to them - such as a strong emotionality. Secondly, the persistence of often purely homosocial male communities, from which women are structurally excluded, is another relevant factor. For this reason, in 2015 the Bundestag voted in favour of introducing awomen's quotato help increase the proportion of women in management positions in the private and public sectors in the long term.

(Further) literature:

Beaufaÿs, Sandra (2012): Leadership positions in science - On the formation of male sociability regimes using the example of institutions of excellence. In: Beaufaÿs, Sandra/Engels, Anita/ Kahlert, Heike (eds.): Simply top? New gender perspectives on careers in science. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus Verlag, pp. 87-117.

Müller, Ursula (2013): Between light and grey area: Women in leadership positions. In: Müller, Ursula/Riegraf, Birgit/Wilz, Sylvia M. (eds.): Gender and Organisation. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 469-494.

Equal rights for women and men in the Federal Republic of Germany are regulated in the Basic Law (GG), Art. 3, Para. 2. It states: "Men and women shall have equal rights. The state shall sponsor the actual realisation of equal rights for women and men and shall work towards the elimination of existing disadvantages." Furthermore, the prohibition of discrimination stipulated in the following paragraph 3 states: "No person shall be disadvantaged or favoured on grounds of sex [...]." Equal rights or equality therefore means that women and men must have the same rights under the same conditions (cf. Kahlert 2002: 164). In order to implement this right, there have been equality laws and officers, women's promotion plans, etc. since the 1980s - until then there was still massive discrimination against women at a legal level, for example husbands were allowed to decide whether their wives should work until 1977 - which have been expanded since the end of the 1990s to include gender mainstreaming.gender mainstreaming-measures since the late 1990s (cf. ibid.).

Cordes (2010: 924) summarises the goals of gender equality policy as follows: (1) Elimination of discrimination against women as a result of unequal living conditions for women and men; (2) Elimination of the social consequences of these inequalities in the sense of equal opportunities in life and participation in society. It distinguishes between three forms of discrimination (cf. ibid.):

1. Direct discrimination means that women are directly discriminated against as a group through certain legal situations; for example, when women were long prohibited from opening their own bank account without their husband's consent.
2. Indirect discrimination means that one gender is indirectly discriminated against in comparison to the other through a gender-neutral norm. Cordes (2010) cites the legal disadvantages of part-time employees compared to full-time employees as an example, which affect women to a particularly large extent (cf. ibid.: 924).
3. Structural discrimination refers to disadvantages for a population group that result from socially shared norms or systems of rules and are anchored in the thoughts and actions of many people. For example, the idea that women tend to be primarily responsible for reproductive labour within the family usually results in disadvantages for their professional careers.

Although there are currently hardly any forms of direct discrimination, as women are still indirectly and structurally disadvantaged compared to men in many areas of society, gender equality policy therefore focuses in particular on the advancement of women and, according to Cordes (2010: 927), has the following objectives:

1. Promoting the compatibility of family and career - this also affects fathers,
2. Supporting women in gaining access to so-called male domains,
3. as well as increasing the proportion of women in management positions, for which purpose the women's quota was adopted by the Bundestag.

Accordingly, Section 1 of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Equal Opportunities Act stipulates that all existing discrimination against men and women must be eliminated and that women must be given special support as well as a better work-life balance. The law also stipulates that people must not be discriminated against on the basis of their gender identity and that measures must not have a negative impact on any gender group.

(Further) literature:

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2022): Strong for the future. The Federal Government's Gender Equality Strategy. Status: July 2020. Available at: https://www.gleichstellungsstrategie.de/. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) (2018): Second Gender Equality Report of the Federal Government. 20.12.2018. Available at: https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/service/publikationen/zweiter-gleichstellungsbericht-119796. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ): Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. Available at: http: //www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/BJNR000010949.html. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Cordes, Mechthild (2010): Equality policies: From the advancement of women to gender mainstreaming. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 924-932.

Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: Law on Equality of Women and Men for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (State Equality Act - LGG) as of 16 July 2022. Available at: https://recht.nrw.de/lmi/owa/br_text_anzeigen?v_id=220071121100436242. Last accessed: 02 August 2022.

Kahlert, Heike (2002): Equal rights/equality. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 164.

Klammer, Ute (2019): Gender equality policy: where gender research finds its practical realisation. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 983-992.

This term refers to the criticism of a culture of heterosexual bisexuality, i.e. the idea that all societies are divided solely into two genders that desire each other, that this has always been the case and that gender is something that can never be discarded by individuals (cf. Hirschauer 1994; Wetterer 2010: 127). As a rule, there is a "compulsory identification" (Hirschauer 2001: 215) of gender, which implies that the body sex (considered biological) is congruent with gender identity, i.e. the identification of a person as female or male (e.g. through clothing, appearance, preferences, etc.), and sexual desire as heterosexual, i.e. related to the 'other' gender - Judith Butler (1991) speaks of the so-called "heterosexual matrix". The concept therefore includes criticism of the resulting standardising and discriminatory heterosexuality requirements (and constraints) and the claim to unambiguity of gender body and identity, which always results in losses.

(Further) literature:

Butler, Judith (1991): Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter [orig. Gender Trouble, 1990]. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Butler, Judith (1995): Bodies of Weight. The discursive limits of gender. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Hartmann, Jutta et al. (2007): Heteronormativity. Empirical studies on gender, sexuality and power. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Hirschauer, Stefan (1994): The social reproduction of bisexuality. In: Cologne Journal of Sociology and Social Psychology, vol. 46, pp. 668-692.

Hirschauer, Stefan (2001): The forgetting of gender: On the praxeology of a category of social order. In: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (special issue 41); pp. 208-235.

Wetterer, Angelika (2010). Construction of gender. Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 126-136.

Lenz (2010) describes intersectionality as a "bundle of theoretical approaches" with which "the interrelationship of gender and other social inequalities" (ibid.: 158) is to be captured. The concept of intersectionality was developed in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an African-American lawyer, to emphasise the interdependent influences of various social inequalities (cf. ibid.). The image of the intersection as a crossroads is suitable for demonstrating the "interweaving and interaction of various categories of difference and different dimensions of social inequality" (Thiessen 2010: 41). While categories such as sex, class and race have been in the foreground since the 1970s, the perception of differences along these dimensions of inequality has since expanded (cf. Lenz 2010: 158), so that categories such as desire, religion, disability and age have also come into focus and are becoming increasingly differentiated. The aim of the intersectionality approach is to make it clear "that forms of oppression and discrimination cannot be added together, but must be considered in their entanglements and interactions" (Küppers 2014: para. 1) and sometimes cause inequalities at different levels: While gender, for example, primarily organises relationships in the intimate sphere - such as in the family - as well as at the level of the social division of labour, class determines the division of labour within the production sector (cf. Verloo 2006: 217, cited in Lenz 2010: 160). A fundamental question is whether the various categories are more structural categories, such as class and race, or rather categories of difference, such as age and disability, which can lead to disadvantages in a wide variety of contexts. This would mean that the categories can be extended indefinitely. (Cf. Lenz 2010: 159) For this reason, a distinction is often made between different levels of analysis on which intersectionality can be analysed (cf. ibid.: 160ff.). Criticism is levelled in particular at the theoretical foundation of the approach (Knapp 2005; 2017) or at the various approaches and claims (Zander 2017).

(Further) literature:

Knapp, Gudrun-Axeli (2005): Intersectionality - a new paradigm of feminist theory? On the transatlantic journey of "Race, Class, Gender". In: Feminist Studies, Vol. 23, Issue 1, pp. 68-81.

Knapp, Gudrun-Axeli (2017): Intersectionality and the problem of epistemic path dependency. In: Psychology & Social Critique, Vol. 41; Issue 2, pp. 7-24.

Küppers, Carolin (2014): Intersectionality. In: Gender Glossar/Gender Glossary. (5 paragraphs). Available at:gender-glossar.de(last accessed: 14.06.2015).

Lenz, Ilse (2010): Intersectionality: On the interrelationship of gender and social inequality. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (eds.): Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 158-165.

Thiessen, Barbara (2010): Feminism: differences and controversies. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 37-44.

Winker, Gabriele/Degele, Nina (2010): Intersectionality. Analysing social inequalities. 2nd unchanged edition. Bielefeld: transcript.

Zander, Michael (2017): What is problematic about intersectionality? In: Psychology & Social Criticism, Vol. 41; Issue 2, pp. 47-65.

Intersexuality is generally understood to be the physical constitution of people "whose sexually attributed characteristics such as chromosomes, gonads, hormones and external genitalia cannot be clearly categorised into the binary system of male and female from birth" (Krämer/Sabisch 2019: 1213-1214). Within the collective term "intersexuality", there are different variations of body characteristics, which is why it is also referred to as variants of gender development. Intersex people - just like endosex people - can define themselves as female, male, trans* or non-binary (enby) or also as intersex. Being intersex says nothing about a person's desire or sexual orientation.

Up to the present day, intersex children in particular with genitalia that do not correspond to the typical female or typical male norm have been surgically and/or hormonally assigned. Since 2021, non-medically indicated operations may only be performed with the informed consent of the person concerned (see BGB §1631e). Since 2018, it has been possible to register 'diverse' as a marital status in addition to leaving the gender entry or the designation 'female' or 'male' open.

(Further) literature:

German Civil Code (2021): § Section 1631e Treatment of children with variations in gender development. Online at: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__1631e.html (accessed 03.05.2022)

Groß, Melanie/Niedenthal, Katrin (ed.) (2021): Gender Diversity. The "Third Option" in the Civil Status Act - Perspectives for Social Work. Bielefeld: transcript.

Haller, Paul/Pertl, Luan/Ponzer, Tinou (2022): Inter* Pride. Perspectives from a global human rights movement. Hiddensee: W_orten & meer.

Klöppel, Ulrike (2010): XXOXY unresolved. Hermaphroditism, sex and gender in German medicine. Bielefeld: transcript.

Krämer, Anike/Sabisch, Katja (2019): Inter*: History, discourse and social practice from the perspective of gender studies. In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer. S. 1213-1222.

Mader, Esto et al (eds.) (2021): Trans* and Inter* Studies. Current research contributions from the German-speaking world. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot. https://inter-nrw.de/

The cascade model was developed for the scientific community and was also taken into account when formulating the research-oriented gender equality standards of the German Research Foundation (DFG): "In 2008, the DFG General Assembly adopted the DFG's research-oriented gender equality standards by a large majority. The member institutions agreed on standards as part of a voluntary commitment to counteract the insufficient participation of women in science and to achieve a significant increase in the proportion of women at all career levels of the German science system." (DFG 2017: 18). "The cascade model is based on the idea that the target values at each career level [at universities] should be orientated towards the actual values of the career level below" (DFG 2017: 15). The success of equal opportunities is primarily reflected in the proportion of women and men at the respective qualification levels.

"In its 2007 recommendations on equal opportunities for female and male scientists, the German Council of Science and Humanities concluded from these findings that the probability of appointment of women can be negatively impaired due to unclear qualification definitions and a gender bias in the assessment of scientific excellence. In addition, the German Council of Science and Humanities points out that the decision criterion of 'fit' in the future working environment, which is considered to be particularly powerful when filling a professorship and is usually decided by male-dominated appointment committees, primarily has a negative impact on the success of further applications." (MKW 2014: 4) The state government in NRW has therefore already included the cascade model in the Higher Education Future Act for appointment procedures.

The absolute proportion of women at a career level in relation to the proportion of women at the previous career level serves as the basis for calculation, which is then used to calculate a quota based on the proportion of women at the previous qualification level. The latter then leads to the calculation of a "target quota" (ibid.: 5), which is to be implemented by the university within a specifically defined period of time.

If there is a particularly sharp drop in the proportion of women in a subject area or at a qualification level compared to the previous level (leaky pipeline), suitable measures must be taken as part of sustainable gender equality work to increase the proportion or contribute to parity. If, for example, more than 70 per cent of graduates in a subject area are female, while the proportion of women at doctoral level is still 40 per cent, but only 10 per cent at professorship level, then the cascade model must be used to identify the causes of the increasingly low proportion of women and appropriate countermeasures must be taken.

(Further) literature:

German Research Foundation (DFG) (2020): The DFG's "Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality": Summary and Recommendations 2020. Status: 30 June 2020. Available at: https://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/foerderung/grundlagen_dfg_foerderung/chancengleichheit/fog_empfehlungen_2020.pdf. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

German Research Foundation (DFG) (2017): The DFG's Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality: Implementation and Effectiveness. Status: 24 November 2017. Available at: https://www.dfg.de/download/pdf/dfg_im_profil/geschaeftsstelle/publikationen/studien/studie_gleichstellungsstandards.pdf. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

Hendrix, Ulla (2019): Women's quota: between legitimacy, efficiency and power. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 993-1002.

Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW) (2014): The cascade model of the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Education Act in higher education practice. Düsseldorf October 2014. Available at: https://www.mkw.nrw/sites/default/files/media/document/file/abhandlung_kaskadenmodell_-_e1.pdf. Last accessed: 02/08/2022.

The term " leaky pipeline " refers to the declining proportion of women in science at the various qualification levels and career stages, which can still be observed in many subject areas despite the increasingly higher educational qualifications of girls and women, plans to promote women, gender equality policies, gender mainstreaming measures and targeted offers in the STEM field as well as mentoring programmes, and which points to a persistent structural inequality between men and women.

(Further) literature:

Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) (2021): "Leaky pipeline" at universities persists across the EU - U-Multirank launches new "Gender Monitor". Available at: https://www.che.de/2021/leaky-pipeline-an-den-hochschulen-besteht-eu-weit-u-multirank-startet-neuen-gender-monitor/. Last accessed: 02.08.2022.

Schlüter, Anne (2019): Mentoring: An instrument for gender-equitable academic staff development. In: Kortendiek, Beate/Riegraf, Birgit/Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 1023-1032.

Masculinity research, also referred to as men's studies or, more rarely, men's research, is an area of research in gender studies that examines how masculinity and male identity(ies) are constructed (cf. Vahsen 2002a: 248). Accordingly, there is also an intensive examination of male lifeworlds, which relates to adult men as well as children and in particular young people.

After the Second Women's Movement had for years criticised the lack of discussion of women and female lifeworlds and succeeded in making them the subject of research and raising public awareness, it also called for a greater focus on male lifeworlds, including their inherent differences and contradictions. For a long time, masculinity was assumed to be a monolithic block - instead, the man was seen as 'the representative of the general' (Simmel, 1985, p. 214)" (Scholz 2015: paragraph 1).

The development that began in the 1970s/80s in the Anglo-American region was also significant for masculinity research, which only belatedly found its way into Germany in the 1990s: there, heterosexual and gay men's groups that had grown into a movement formulated criticism of the dominant images of masculinity, which were perceived as inadequate. Accordingly, male identities and worlds of experience were initially at the centre of interest. However, from the 1990s onwards, the increasing examination of gender theoretical foundations, feminist men's studies and gay studies led to a change in methodological approaches and to the perception of the plurality and diversity of male modes of existence. (Cf. Vahsen 2002a: 248)

In particular, Carrigan, Connell and Lee's (1996) essay Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity(1985) and Connell's comments on Gender and Power (1999) had a major influence on the development of theory in masculinity research. The concept of hegemonic masculinity first formulated by Carrigan, Connell and Lee is still a fundamental approach today - despite criticism against the backdrop of transforming social (gender) relations - and is constantly being developed further (see Meuser 2010; Scholz 2019). In the further development of Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity(Gender and Power), which is now a standard work of gender and masculinity research, she deals with the relationship between patriarchal structures and the associated power constellations and shows - and this is the added value of her theory - a double relationship of oppression (cf. e.g. Vahsen 2002a: 248): that of men towards women and that between men themselves. Connell (1999) distinguishes a total of four practices of masculinity or concepts of masculinity: (1) the hegemonic, i.e. the dominant form of masculinity that is accepted across all milieus within a historical and cultural context - to which all other concepts of masculinity are subordinate - (2) complicit masculinity, which benefits in the form of the "patriarchal dividend" from the power of those men who embody hegemonic masculinity, and (3) subordinate and (4) marginalised masculinities. While marginalised masculinities are primarily those that - due to ethnicity, for example - only benefit to a limited extent from the advantages arising from patriarchy, Connell primarily counts homosexual men as subordinate masculinities. Due to their ascribed proximity to femininity, they are considered subordinate (similar to women). Nevertheless, there are always overlaps between these four categories, which are not unaffected by social change.

One focus of international research on masculinities in recent years has been on concepts of masculinity in a transnational context: "Connell (1998) argues that the older, local models of bourgeois masculinity [in the German-speaking world, this would be the breadwinner model based on the normal employment relationship, author's note], which are anchored in the local ruling classes and conservative cultures, are currently being replaced by a transnational masculinity. are being replaced by a transnational masculinity modelled on the businessman. Compared to the older hegemonic masculinities, this masculinity is more individualistic, more 'liberal' in terms of sexuality and social attitudes, and more orientated towards power through market domination than bureaucratic power." (Wedgwood/Connell 2010: 120) It is also debatable whether women can now embody a form of hegemonic femininity comparable to hegemonic masculinity (cf. Scholz 2010; critically: Stückler 2013).

Similar to Connell's theory, Pierre Bourdieu's theory of male domination is also characterised by a "double structure of distinction and dominance" (Meuser 2001: 7) according to Meuser (2001) - to whom we owe the connection between the two theories (cf. Meuser 2006): the subordination of women and the need for dominance over other men (cf. ibid.). However, while Connell focuses primarily on the relationships between men, Bourdieu focusses primarily on power relations between men and women. According to him, the male habitus is "[c]onstructed and perfected [...] only in connection with the space reserved for men, in which, among men, the serious games of competition take place [...]" (Bourdieu 1997: 203). (Bourdieu 1997: 203). Although women are excluded from these serious games, they can contribute to increasing the symbolic capital of men within the so-called games (e.g. through their appearance).

In addition to sociology, masculinity research is now represented in many other disciplines such as Education Studies, Literature, History and Health Sciences. According to Vahsen (2002a: 249), common topics include: male socialisation, boys' research, violence, male sexuality, masculinity and work, masculinities in organisations, men's health and men's history; in recent years, the examination of questions of masculinity, fatherhood and paternity in particular has become a broad field of research (cf. exempl. Meuser/Scholz 2012). For examples of different strands and approaches in masculinity research and their focal points and objectives, see Vahsen 2002a: 249 and - focussing on the international context - Wedgwood/Connell 2010.

(Further) literature:

Bourdieu, Pierre (1997): Male domination. In: Dölling, Irene/Krais, Beate (eds.): Ein alltägliches Spiel. Gender construction in social practice. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, pp. 153-217.

Brod, Harry (ed.) (1987): The making of masculinities: the new men's studies. London: Allen & Unwin.

Brod, Harry/Kaufman, Michael (eds.) (1994): Theorising masculinities. Thousand Oaks et al: Sage Publ.

Carrigan, Tim/Connell, Robert W./Lee, John (1996): Approaches to a new sociology of masculinity. In: BauSteineMänner (ed.): Critical Men's Studies. New approaches in gender theory, Hamburg: Argument-Verlag, pp. 38-75.

Connell, Robert W. (1987): Gender and power: society, the person and sexual politics. Stanford Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press.

Connell, Robert W. (1999):Der gemachte Mann: Konstruktion und Krise von Männlichkeiten . ed. by Müller, Ursula, transl. by Stahl, Christian. In : Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, vol. 8, Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

Horlacher, Stefan/Jansen, Bettina/Schwanebeck, Wieland (2016): Masculinities. An interdisciplinary handbook. Heidelberg: J.B. Metzler.

Meuser, Michael (2001): Men's worlds. On the collective construction of hegemonic masculinity. In: Writings of the Essen Centre for Gender Studies. Edited by Janshen, Doris/Meuser, Michael. 1st Vol. II, pp. 5-32.

Meuser, Michael (2006): Gender and masculinity. Sociological theory and cultural patterns of interpretation. 2nd, revised and updated edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Meuser, Michael (2010): Geschlecht, Macht, Männlichkeit - Strukturwandel von Erwerbsarbeit und hegemoniale Männlichkeit, pp. 325-336. - Replik: Hegemoniale Männlichkeit - ein Auslaufmodell? In: Erwägen, Wissen, Ethik (EWE) 21, H. 3, pp. 415-431.

Meuser, Michael/Scholz, Sylka (2012): Challenged masculinities. Constructions of masculinity in the transformation of gainful employment and family. In: Baader, Meike/Bilstein, Johannes/Tholen, Toni (eds.): Erziehung, Bildung und Geschlecht. Masculinities in the focus of gender studies. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 23-40.

Scholz, Sylka (2010): Hegemonic femininity? Hegemonic femininity! In: Consider. Knowledge. Ethics vol. 21, pp. 396-398.

Scholz, Sylka (2015): Masculinity in sociology. In: Gender Glossar / Gender Glossary (5 paragraphs). Available at:gender-glossar.de

Scholz, Sylka (2019): Masculinity research: the hegemony of the concept of "hegemonic masculinity". In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Stückler, Andreas (2013): On the way to a hegemonic femininity? Gender, competition and the dialectic of equality. In: Gender, Issue 3 (2013), pp. 114-130.

Vahsen, Mechthilde (2002a): Männerforschung(Men's Studies/New Men's Studies/Men's Movement). In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 248f.

Vahsen, Mechthilde (2002b): Men's studies, feminist. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 249f.

Wedgwood, Nikki/Connell, RW: Männlichkeitsforschung: Männer und Männlichkeiten im internationalen Forschungskontext. In: Becker, Ruth/Kortendiek, Beate (ed.) in collaboration with Budrich, Barbara/Lenz, Ilse/Metz-Göckel, Sigrid/Müller, Ursula/Schäfer, Sabine: Handbuch Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung: Theorie, Methoden, Empirie. 3rd expanded and revised edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, pp. 116-125.

For queer theory and queer studies, which emerged from gay and lesbian studies in the 1990s, the turn towards post-structuralism and thus the questioning of gender essentialisation was a fundamental prerequisite (see also Breger 2002: 327). Initially used as a derogatory term for homosexuals, the gay and lesbian emancipation movement adopted the term 'queer' in the 1980s as a "basis for theoretical objections to the heterosexuality and normality requirements of society and science" (Rendtorff 2011: 22). (Rendtorff 2011: 229)

While questions of sexuality and sexual desire were initially at the centre of the debate, the focus shifted over time to a fundamental questioning of heteronormative concepts of identity (cf. ibid.). Gender and desire are understood as historically contingent and performatively produced. With this identity-critical gesture, queer theory is directed against the "heterosexual matrix" (Butler 1991) and a naturalisation of the two-gender order as well as corresponding social standardisation processes, which still had a strong influence on the theorisation of gay and lesbian studies. The critical examination of relations of desire and the social standardisation of heterosexuality plays a particularly important role here. This is not just about overcoming the long-standing separation of the lesbian and gay movements, but above all about considering other gender and sexually marginalised groups (see also Breger 2002: 327). Similar to women's studies, queer theory is often accused of neglecting other categories of domination in favour of focusing on relations of desire.

(Further) literature:

Butler, Judith (1991): Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.

Breger, Claudia (2002): Queer Studies/Queer Theory. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - People - Basic Concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, pp. 327-329.

Degele, Nina: (2008): Gender / Queer Studies. An introduction. Munich: UTB.

Jagose, Annamarie (2001): Queer Theory: An Introduction. Berlin: Querverlag.

Laufenberg, Mike (2019): Queer Theory: Identity and power-critical perspectives on sexuality and gender. In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Rendtorff, Barbara (2011): Keywords and terms from gender studies. In: Rendtorff, Barbara/Mahs, Claudia/Wecker, Verena (eds.): Geschlechterforschung. Theorien, Thesen, Themen zur Einführung , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, pp. 220-233, here p. 229.

A person is described as transgender if their gender identity and external appearance or the gender ascribed to them at birth do not match (cf. Funk 2002: 391), i.e. they identify with a different gender. In many cases, the aim is to physically and/or socially (e.g. through a change of name or clothing) conform to the perceived gender identity through surgery or hormone intake. The term is a further development or successor to the term 'transsexuality', which - stemming from the sexological typology of the 19th century (cf. ibid.) - has a medical-pathological connotation and thus identifies it as 'pathological'. While the term transsexuality primarily focuses on the biological and physical sex and thus the sex category, transgender tends to focus on the transgression of "socio-cultural gender norms and the violent nature of heteronormative gender binaries" (Hoenes/Schirmer 2019: 1204-1205). The term trans* - which has been increasingly used since 2010 in particular - attempts to expand the spectrum beyond binary gender and also includes other forms of being trans such as genderfluid, non-binary, neutrios or agender (ibid.: 1205).

The pathologisation of people whose gender identity deviates from their assigned biological sex, expressed in the term transsexuality, shows how powerful the "heterosexual matrix" (Butler 1991) and thus the compulsion to clearly identify as a woman or man is. This is also shown by the Transsexuals Act (TSG), which is still in force today and has been repeatedly reformed over the years (see Valentiner 2022). Further reforms are being discussed politically, such as new regulations on changing the gender entry (Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection/Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community 2019) and further legal reform requirements (see Maurer 2021).

(Further) literature:

Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection / Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (2019): Draft law on the revision of the amendment of the gender entry. Online at: https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/DE/Aenderung_Geschlechtseintrag.html (accessed: 26.07.2022)

Butler, Judith (1991): The discomfort of gender. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.

Funk, Julika (2002): Transgender people. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung.Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 391.

Hoenes, Josch/Schirmer, Utan (2019): Transgender/transsexuality: research perspectives and challenges. In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer. S. 1203-1212.

Mader, Esto et al (eds.) (2021): Trans* and Inter* Studies. Current research contributions from the German-speaking world. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Maurer, Melina (2021): The treatment of trans and intersex persons in German law de lege lata and de lege ferenda - An overview of selected topics. In: Januszkiewicz, Magdalena et al. (eds.) Gender issues in law. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. S. 151-176.

Rinnert, Andrea (2002): Transsexuality/Transvestism. In: Metzler Lexikon Gender Studies / Geschlechterforschung. Approaches - people - basic concepts. Edited by Knoll, Renate. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, p. 391f.

Valentiner, Dana-Sophia (2022): Gender identity and constitutional law. The fundamental right to find and recognise one's gender identity, the Federal Constitutional Court's decision on the "third option" and its consequences. In: Januszkiewicz, Magdalena et al. (eds.) Gender Issues in Law. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. S. 129-150.

The concept of undoing gender was developed by Stefan Hirschauer in 1994 as a counter-concept to the concept of doing gender coined by Candace West and Don H. Zimmermann. Hirschauer sees the permanent relevance of gender as a methodological problem and posits the thesis that this varies depending on the context (see also Geimer 2013: para. 1), for example in that other structural or difference categories such as race, class or desire present themselves as more powerful. "Without such an actualisation of gender difference, which turns opportunities into situational realities, there is more likely to be a practised 'refraining' from it, a kind of social forgetting that shifts the characterisation of gender as a 'seen but unnoticed feature' of situations: not taking note of something is itself a constructive achievement. I propose to call it'undoing gender'." (Hirschauer 1994: 678, emphasis added)

He therefore questions the omni-relevance assumption of gender formulated by Garfinkel (1967) (cf. Hirschauer 1994: 676f.). Although Hirschauer (2001: 215) also recognises a continuous "compulsory identification" of gender, he also describes situations in which people identify as women or men but do not address themselves as such and therefore do not make gender relevant. Nevertheless, he describes "gender neutrality" as an "extremely demanding and precarious social construction [...]." (Hirschauer 1994: 679)

(Further) literature:

Butler, Judith (2004): Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge.

Garfinkel, Harold (1967): Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Geimer, Alexander (2013): Undoing Gender. In: Gender Glossar/Gender Glossary. Available:

Gildemeister, Regine (2019): Doing Gender: a micro-theoretical approach to the category of gender. In: Kortendieck, Beate; Riegraf, Birgit; Sabisch, Katja (eds.): Handbuch Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer. S. 409-417.

Hirschauer, Stefan (1994): The social reproduction of bisexuality. In: Cologne Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 46, pp. 668-691.

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