German feminist Hedwig Dohm was an activist for human rights and in particular for women’s rights in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A feminist before her time, Dohm was one of the first women writers in German history to radically and openly challenge heteronormativity in many ways. From an early age Dohm had a keen sense of the social restraints and biases middle-class society placed upon women. With both wit and humor she examined, challenged, and ruthlessly deconstructed what she understood to be culturally constructed notions of gender, kinship relationships, and sexual morality. She wrote in many genres including scholarly studies, feminist-political essays, novels, novellas, reviews, short stories, and over 80

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First published 29 January 2008

Citation: Riley, Samantha Michele. "Hedwig Dohm". The Literary Encyclopedia. 29 January 2008.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11985, accessed 9 February 2010.]