The Surplus Woman: Unmarried in Imperial Germany, 1871-1918
Catherine L. Dollard
Oct 2009 · Monographs in German History Book 30 · Berghahn Books
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The first German women’s movement embraced the belief in a demographic surplus of unwed women, known as the Frauenüberschuß, as a central leitmotif in the campaign for reform. Proponents of the female surplus held that the advances of industry and urbanization had upset traditional marriage patterns and left too many bourgeois women without a husband. This book explores the ways in which the realms of literature, sexology, demography, socialism, and female activism addressed the perceived plight of unwed women. Case studies of reformers, including Lily Braun, Ruth Bré, Elisabeth Gnauck-Kühne, Helene Lange, Alice Salomon, Helene Stöcker, and Clara Zetkin, demonstrate the expansive influence of the discourse surrounding a female surfeit. By combining the approaches of cultural, social, and gender history, The Surplus Woman provides the first sustained analysis of the ways in which imperial Germans conceptualized anxiety about female marital status as both a product and a reflection of changing times.
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Tsu Nimh
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November 15, 2022
Very interesting analysis of the way the perceived surplus of unmarried daughters of the middle class was used by various reform anti-reform groups in the Kaiser's Germany and after WWI. The resemblance to the feminist movement factions of the 1960s is strong.
About the author
Catherine L. Dollard received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently is Associate Professor of History at Denison University. She is the recipient of Bundeskanzler and Renewal Fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and also has received fellowships from DAAD, the Mellon Foundation, and the Lilly Foundation.
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