Gender Equality as a Boon and a Bane to Gender Studies in the Conditions of the New Academic Governance

Abstract

In this article the author argues that the strong link between gender studies and gender equality policies that is well-established in EU policies is both a boon and a bane in the conditions of the new academic governance in German academia. This argument is based on case studies on the significance and consideration of gender studies in university development processes that were conducted in Germany. First, the author examines how and in what conditions gender studies are taken into consideration in university development processes, especially when universities can profit from gender studies in order to fulfil the legal requirement to put gender equality into practice. Second, she shows what constellations of factors and actors support or hinder the development of gender studies in universities and how these mechanisms function in practice. Thirdly, she discusses how the relationship between gender studies and gender equality policies is shaped in the organisational practices of the universities analysed in the case studies and how the partly implicit connection of gender studies with gender equality policies is made explicit. The result is that gender studies profits from the legal pressure to put gender equality into action but suffers from the disqualification as non-academic because of its link with gender equality.