This dissertation casts a new light on women in civic society under the German Empire. Using the city of Dortmund as a representative case study, it analyzes the gendered nature of local power relationships on the urban level. The connections and interactions of women with the local administration, and with other male and female citizens in a public context, define the central concept of this dissertation: “civic womanhood.” This investigation integrates three methodological approaches, Alltagsgeschichte (the history of everyday life), a focus on the local, and a gendered analysis, and combines historical narrative with structural and discursive analysis, to arrive at a complex and gender-sensitive picture of the social and political underpinnings of the modern city in Imperial Germany.

This dissertation fills a significant gap in the existing local historiography as it provides the first comprehensive analysis of women's involvement on the civic level in Dortmund; it also constitutes the first English-language contribution to the city's local history. Most importantly, it produces new insights into the distinctive features of women's local civic engagement as compared to the activities of national women's organizations. Finally, this dissertation addresses a basic and fundamental issue of historical investigation, namely the tension and conflict that arise when individual agency clashes with the structural constraints of existing power structures.

Women who participated in the public life of their city found both opportunities and limitations in a local setting that was dominated by a small political elite that cultivated a manly civic image. Local women gradually widened the scope of their activities and left a distinct impact on poor relief, education, and public debate, and made their commitment to civic causes part of their everyday lives.