Women - men - gender. - Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Women’s and Gender Policy in the Archives of Social Democracy
The Archives of Social Democracy houses approximately
45,000 meters of fi les. Here, one can fi nd
many answers to questions on women’s history
and on the political work of women, including in
terms of the gender dimension. The source for this
is mainly the 180 unpublished documents and
papers of politically active women. The collection
covers documents from the end of the 19th century
up to the present day. These documents range
from the very few unpublished papers of the social
democratic Reichstag members (Clara Bohm-
Schuch, Marie Juchacz) to the records of former or
still active women parliamentarians (e.g. Käte
Strobel, Annemarie Renger, Iris Gleicke). Members
of the European Parliament are as visible as women
who held or currently hold government offi ces
FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG
WOMEN MEN GENDER
(Heide Simonis, Katharina Focke, Edelgard Buhlman,
Herta Däublin-Gmelin, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul).
Records of the members of the SPD
party executive committee (Andrea Nahles) or of
members of major trade union committees (Ilse
Brusis) are also available here, as also those of wellknown
representatives of the Working Group on
social democratic women. The documents of women
journalists (Carola Stern), of women in the Resistance
(Erna Blencke, Nora Platiel) or of women
activists in the peace movement, such as, Christel
Beilmann, also make for interesting reading.
Further documents on gender issues and on the
political work of women are available in the records
of the SPD party executive committee, for example,
in the collection of the “women’s offi ces” that
has more than 1,200 titles. Especially interesting
for research on women’s and gender policy are the
documents of the SPD parliamentary party group.
These protocols and other materials are a repository
of virtually all women related issues of the
past decades, ranging from the debates on Paragraph
218 to the measures on improved reconciliation
of family and job.
Additional sources on specifi c issues, such as, on
the condition of women at work and on the commitment
of women workers and employees to
trade unions can be accessed in the trade union
collection. Apart from the German Trade Union
Federation (DGB) Archive, there are also the documents
of formerly individual trade unions, for
example, of the German Salaried Employees
Union, of the Union of Retailing, Banking and
Insurance, of the Union of Food, Beverages and
Catering or of the Union of Textiles and Garments.
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