Book Launch: Feminist Transformations

Dr Jane Freeland is Lecturer in History and Fellow of the Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Queen Mary University of London).

About the Book

Starting in the 1970s, feminists in West and then East Berlin campaigned against domestic violence as a key issue of women's inequality. They exposed the harmful gender norms that left women unprotected and vulnerable to abuse in the home and called for this to change.

Situating domestic violence activism within a broader history of feminism in post-war Germany, Feminist Transformations traces the evolution of this movement both across political division and reunification and from grassroots campaign to established, professionalised social service. In doing so, it brings the histories of feminism in East and West Berlin together for the first time and explores how feminism successfully changed women's rights in Germany.

But it also asks what popular and political support for domestic violence activism has meant for feminism and the advancement of women's rights more broadly. Examining the trajectory of feminism in Germany, Jane Freeland reveals the limitations of gender equality as advancements in women's rights were often built on the reassertion of patriarchal gender roles.

“For our own confused era of ongoing liberalization and ferocious antifeminism, Freeland's beautifully argued book offers myriad profound insights. Contrasting developments under democratic capitalism and state socialism, Freeland makes ingenious use of sources to consider anew the intricacy of interactions between activists and the people they serve - as well as the politicians and wider public they need to persuade - and the learning processes necessary to secure broad-based progressive social change.” - Dagmar Herzog, Graduate Center, City University of New York

“Jane Freeland's original and pioneering book uses the campaign against domestic violence - first in West Germany, then in the GDR - as a revealing case study of the relationship between feminism and social politics in each rival republic, and puts it in a broader transnational context. In it she boldly explores how feminist politics were negotiated across national boundaries and the Cold War divide, and at the crossroads of political and social history, organised activism and private life, with surprising results.” - Paul Betts, University of Oxford

“Feminist Transformations and Domestic Violence Activism in Divided Berlin" is an urgent intervention in both the history of postwar Germany, and the history of feminism. Jane Freeland is breaking new ground, both in her evaluation of the impact of feminism on the mainstream political agenda, and her nuanced assessment of how the movement was changed in the process. Her integration of activism in East Berlin, before and after the Wende, expands our understanding of feminism in exciting and important ways. We need more work like this!” - Josie McLellan, University of Bristol.

Everyone is welcome, but please register to join the event.