Gender in Transition Discourse And Practice in German-speaking Europe 1750-1830

The late Enlightenment saw an acute transformation of gender definitions in the German cultural areas of Europe, leading to a "polarization" of the sexes. Where early modern cultural norms had once affirmed a multitude of differences within society, modernity was founded on an ideal of equality which, although embraced as universal, in practice applied only to white male citizens. The new dichotomies of gender, socioeconomic status, and race created by this disparity between rhetoric and practice held tremendous social implications for all Germans. Law and science inscribed a new set of morals with gendered virtues and social spheres. Masculinity and femininity came to be understood as opposites based in nature. The transformed gender system fueled an epochal social reordering.Gleixner, Ulrike is the author of 'Gender in Transition Discourse And Practice in German-speaking Europe 1750-1830', published 2006 under ISBN 9780472069439 and ISBN 0472069438.