The history of the Federal Republic Germany is marked by conflicts over the shape of liberal democracy. A central issue was the position of women, who organized in the face of the discrepancy between formal equality and gender discrimination and raised demands for political-legal equality, gainful employment and reproductive self-determination. Complementary to this, however, antifeminist countermovements also articulated themselves. They vehemently tried to prevent the emancipation of women and the questioning of a "natural" gender order. Thus, antifeminists were significantly involved in the debates and decision-making processes about the order of gender and the scope of democratization.

The dissertation project deals with the conjunctures, actors, themes, and practices of antifeminist activism in the Federal Republic of Germany up to the 1990s. While the antifeminism of earlier decades is well researched, the history of antifeminist activism in the Federal Republic is a research desideratum. The following questions are central: Who were "the" antifeminists, how did they organize themselves, and with which forms of action, media, and networks did they attempt to exert influence on public debates and political decision-making processes? Which conjunctures, continuities and ruptures characterized the anti-feminist discourse in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1945? The study first aims to identify the different varieties and modes of operation of antifeminism and to ask to what extent it continued to work as a kind of "cultural code" (S. Volkov) after 1945. In addition, the socio-cultural location of its carrier groups, i.e., the biographical backgrounds, values, and self-images of antifeminist actors, will be examined. Together, these perspectives shed light on the interrelationship between antifeminist movements on the one hand and changes in gender relations and the democratization of West German society on the other.

This project is a part of the overall project "Democracy and Gender: Conflicts over the Order of German Society in the 20th Century".