A Look at Gender Relations in the GDR and East Germany, Focussing on the Social, Domestic, and Family Sphere

Abstract

Stolt’s work investigates everyday gender relations in post-socialist East Germany, focusing on the search for recognition of individual men and women. Stolte’s work is informed by Jessica Benjamin’s psychoanalytical work on the search for recognition; furthermore, Stolte draws on qualitative interviews which she conducted with women and with heterosexual couples. Stolte makes a point of distancing herself from approaches which focus on the sphere of “gainful employment,” arguing that approaches which focus on a narrowly defined sphere of work do not problematise dominant ideas about the value of unpaid work (e.g., caretaking), and thus serve to reproduce male bias and male dominance which are intrinsic to the sphere of gainful employment.