Doctoral Dissertation Research: Eastern German Women's Organizations and Welfare State Transformation since German Unification

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This dissertation connects macro and micro perspectives on the welfare state by exploring the mutually constitutive relationship between local women's organizations and different levels government in two cities in post-unification eastern Germany. The project considers how local environments influence women's organizational efforts in response to changes in the welfare state in two cities where women's organizing has been subject to different opportunities and constraints. I will use comparative and narrative approaches to analyze interview, observational, and archival data to understand how the divergent histories of the women's movement in these two cities have been shaped by the local, national, and international contexts from which they emerged. The project examines the complex fields of action in which women's organizations in these two cities have been operating since German unification in 1990. By considering how local women's organizations navigate the state-and, in turn, how different levels of the state respond to women's organizations-this dissertation also will illuminate how changes in national and international (European Union) governance may have differential effects across localized contexts. The broader impacts of this research include the following: The project will contribute to multiple areas of sociology, including discussions of gender and the welfare state, social movements, and post-socialism. The dissertation will improve social science understanding of how shifting gender relations interact with local environments and identities to create new understandings of gender relations, the state, and strategies for resistance and change. The project will also make important contributions to scholarly, policy, and public debates about social policy and gender inequality.