Frauenkultur

Frauenkultur is an online resource archive for second wave feminist texts written between 1965-1995.

I created this archive during the first Covid lockdown in 2020. It began as a project of cataloguing my own personal archive and quickly became a much bigger endeavour, including the development of themed subject guides.

Many young women today do not know the extent to which second wave feminists wrote, edited, and published books. There exists a treasure trove of feminist writing and theory from the 1970s and 1980s that must not be forgotten or trivialised. Frauenkultur acts as a starting point for young feminists to make intergenerational linkages and discover overlooked herstorical material.

Frauenkultur is a German word that literally translates to “Women’s Culture”. Some of the earliest mentions using this word happen in the context of Bauhaus weaving and architecture theory*, based on how the early German women’s movement created space for women to see themselves not just as users, but as creators.

* See T’ai Smith’s book Bauhaus Weaving Theory: From Feminine Craft to Mode of Design, University of Minnesota Press, 2014.