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Sex, Sexuality, and Women’s Subjectivity in Imperial Germany

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Naito, Y. Sex, Sexuality, and Women’s Subjectivity in Imperial Germany. . Marianne Weber’s Critical Standpoint on the Concept of “Nature”. Sociologia Internationalis, 99999(), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3790/sint.2025.422583
Naito, Yoko "Sex, Sexuality, and Women’s Subjectivity in Imperial Germany. Marianne Weber’s Critical Standpoint on the Concept of “Nature”. " Sociologia Internationalis 99999., 2025, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3790/sint.2025.422583
Naito, Yoko (2025): Sex, Sexuality, and Women’s Subjectivity in Imperial Germany, in: Sociologia Internationalis, vol. 99999, iss. , 1-20, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/sint.2025.422583
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Sex, Sexuality, and Women’s Subjectivity in Imperial Germany

Marianne Weber’s Critical Standpoint on the Concept of “Nature”

Naito, Yoko

Sociologia Internationalis, Online First : pp. 1–20 | First published online: December 16, 2025

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Duncker & Humblot
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3790/sint.2025.422583
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Multiple languages
Pages
20

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Yoko Naito, Osaka Metropolitan University, Graduate School of Sustainable System Sciences 599 – 8531 Osaka, Japan

References

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Abstract

In Imperial Germany, scientific discourses on sex and sexuality intersected with arguments about women’s subjectivity. Feminists and scientists who joined the League for the Protection of Motherhood closely linked motherhood to eugenics for the improvement of human quality and social evolution. Marianne Weber, on the other hand, criticized the concept of “nature” in the sexually radical New Ethic or natural scientific discourses by distinguishing “nature” from “ethics.” Her position was not only influenced by neo-Kantian philosophy, but also had some connection to the debates about scientific objectivity involving Max Weber in the early days of German sociology. Marianne Weber sought to establish women’s subjectivity against the monistic tendency in natural scientific discourses in order to change the existing gender order in society.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Sex, Sexuality, and Women’s Subjectivity in Imperial Germany 1
Marianne Weber’s Critical Standpoint on the Concept of “Nature” 1
I. Introduction 1
II. Affirmation of “Nature” 3
1. The Foundation of the BfM 3
2. The New Ethic 4
III. Intervention in “Nature”: Improvement of Human Quality and Motherhood 5
1. The Term “Healthy” and Eugenic Ends 5
2. Motherhood and Eugenic Thought 7
3. Exclusion of ‘Low-Value Persons’ and Reproductive Interventions 8
IV. Marianne Weber’s Perspective on the Concept of “Nature” 9
1. Criticizing the New Ethic 9
2. Modern Naturalism and Relativizing Ethics 10
3. Confusion Between Being (Sein) and Ought (Sollen) 10
4. Against Affirming the Inferiority of Woman 11
V. Distinction Between “Nature” and “Ethics” 12
1. Ethical Individualism and Women’s Subjectivity 12
2. Common Ground with Max Weber: The Objectivity of the Sciences and the Subjectivity of Values 13
3. Women and Cultural Sciences 14
VI. Conclusion 15
References 16
Acknowledgements 19

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