Gisela Bock
Encyclopedia
Gisela Bock is a German feminist historian
. She studied in Freiburg, Berlin, Paris and Rome. She took her doctorate at the Free University Berlin in 1971 (on early modern intellectual history in Italy) and her Habilitation at the Technical University Berlin in 1984. She has taught at the Free University Berlin (1971-1983) and was professor at the European University Institute
(1985-1989) in Florence
, Italy
, at the University of Bielefeld (1989-1997) and then at the Free University Berlin. She retired in 2007.
In the 1970s, Bock was active in the international campaign for "wages for/against housework“ and she was one of the pioneers in the emergence and establishment of women’s and gender history. She was a co-founder of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History (1987). Bock's best known works are her theoretical articles on gender history and the volume Women in European History (all of them in many languages). Only in German is her 1986 book Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus (Compulsory Sterilization in National Socialism), a study of the 400,000 compulsory sterilization
s performed in Nazi Germany on "genetically inferior“ men and women. Bock examined the history of sterilization in Nazi Germany
with respect to the perpetrators as well as the victims, both women and men. She showed how the treatment and the experience of male and female victims was both similar and different, and she argued that Nazi gender policy was shaped by Nazi racism just as Nazi race policy was shaped by gender. Bock also examined the Nazi sterilization policy as an integral part of the regime’s population policy as well as a prelude to Nazi genocide.
English
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
. She studied in Freiburg, Berlin, Paris and Rome. She took her doctorate at the Free University Berlin in 1971 (on early modern intellectual history in Italy) and her Habilitation at the Technical University Berlin in 1984. She has taught at the Free University Berlin (1971-1983) and was professor at the European University Institute
European University Institute
The European University Institute ' in Florence is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute established by European Union member states to contribute to cultural and scientific development in the social sciences, in a European perspective...
(1985-1989) in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, at the University of Bielefeld (1989-1997) and then at the Free University Berlin. She retired in 2007.
In the 1970s, Bock was active in the international campaign for "wages for/against housework“ and she was one of the pioneers in the emergence and establishment of women’s and gender history. She was a co-founder of the International Federation for Research in Women’s History (1987). Bock's best known works are her theoretical articles on gender history and the volume Women in European History (all of them in many languages). Only in German is her 1986 book Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus (Compulsory Sterilization in National Socialism), a study of the 400,000 compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization
Compulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
s performed in Nazi Germany on "genetically inferior“ men and women. Bock examined the history of sterilization in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
with respect to the perpetrators as well as the victims, both women and men. She showed how the treatment and the experience of male and female victims was both similar and different, and she argued that Nazi gender policy was shaped by Nazi racism just as Nazi race policy was shaped by gender. Bock also examined the Nazi sterilization policy as an integral part of the regime’s population policy as well as a prelude to Nazi genocide.
Work
German- Thomas Campanella: politisches Interesse und philosphische Spekulation, Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1974.
- Die andere Arbeiterbewegung in den USA von 1905-1922: die Industrial Workers of the WorldIndustrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
, München: TrikontTrikontThe leftist publishing house Trikont was founded in 1967 in Munich. The name "Trikont" means "three continents", in German a not very common synonym for Third World Countries....
, 1976. - co-written with Barbara Duden "Arbeit aus Liebe - Liebe als Arbeit: zur Entstehung der Hausarbeit im Kapitalismus" in Frauen und Wissenschaft: Beiträge zur Berliner Sommeruniversität für Frauen Juli 1976, 1977.
- Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus: Studien zur Rassenpolitik und Frauenpolitik, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1986. Reprint 2010.
- Frauen in der europäischen Geschichte, München:C.H.Beck 2000, 2005.
- (edited with Margarete Zimmermann), Die europäische Querelle des Femmes: Geschlechterdebatten seit dem 15. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart; Weimar: Metzler, 1997.
- (editor), Genozid und Geschlecht. Jüdische Frauen im nationalsozialistischen Lagersystem, Frankfurt am Main/New York: Campus 2005.
- edited with Daniel Schönpflug, Friedrich Meinecke in seiner Zeit, Stuttgart 2006.
English
- "Women's History and Gender History: Aspects of an International Debate" in Gender and History, Volume 1, 1989, pp. 7-30.
- co-edited with Quentin Skinner and Maurizio Viroli, Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge University Press 1990.
- co-edited with Pat Thane Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States, 1880s-1950s, London 1991.
- co-edited with Susan James Beyond Equality and Difference: Citizenship, Feminist Politics and Female Subjectivity, London 1992.
- Women in European history Oxford; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2002.
- Challenging Dichotomies: Perspectives on Women's History. In Writing Women's History: International Perspectives,ed. Karen Offen, Ruth Roach Pierson, and Jane Rendall, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-23.
- Ordinary Women in Nazi Germany: Perpetrators, Victims, Followers, and Bystanders. In Women in the Holocaust, ed. Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman, New Haven & London 1998, pp. 85-100.