Of comradeship and sisterhood: a political history of Die Gleichheit, 1891–1917
Die Gleichheit was the publication of the highly influential women’s movement of German Social Democracy
(SPD), the largest political party in the Kaiserreich (1871–1918). Over 175,000 women participated in this
movement, which was central to the establishment of International Women’s Day. Despite its significance and
rich content, Die Gleichheit has been almost entirely overlooked in scholarship, meaning that this powerful voice
of women activists has been lost. Through a detailed analysis of the journal in its party-political and
transnational contexts, Dr Lewis’s project will capture and foreground this voice, and thereby transform our
understanding of female political agency in this period.
The project is generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust and is supervised by Prof Ingrid Sharp at the University of Leeds.