Jennifer Walcoff Neuheiser
Ph.D. Student
jwalcoff@email.unc.edu
Major Field: Modern European History
Other Fields: Women's History; Intellectual and Cultural History; Jewish History
Co-Avisors: Konrad Jarausch and Christopher Browning
Research Interests: Dissertation Title: "Rights in Practice?
Women's Citizenship in Germany, 1908-49." My dissertation reframes the
history of citizenship in Germany by approaching citizenship as a
process comprised not only of a legal status, but also cultural and
social notions that determine one's ability and duty to be an active
participant in the shaping of public and political life. By
analyzing debates surrounding women's participation in national
politics, exercise of state authority as legal professionals, and
nationality rights, I explain how the "women question" in the first
half of the 20th Century sparked a series of negotiations
that continually contested the boundaries separating women's
citizenship rights and duties from those of men. In contrast to
previous scholarship, my study balances personal life stories against
political and socio-cultural narratives to expose paradoxes between
competing notions of citizenship. While highlighting women's
perspectives, I also incorporate the writings and opinions of formal
political institutions, such as the Reichstag and Ministry of
Justice, male politicians, legal professionals, political parties, and
civic associations. As my research emphasizes continuities and
gradual changes associated with women's life experiences across the
major political shifts from imperial state to democratic republic to
National Socialist dictatorship, it challenges general assumptions that
these turning points implicitly led to decisive changes in women's
legal and social situations. Through multi-faceted source
material and a unique methodological approach, this dissertation thus
revises long-held assertions about the "failures" of the women's
movement in Germany and provides a fresh perspective on the nature of
politics in the Weimar and Nazi eras.