Gisela Erler

Gisela Erler (born 9 May 1946) is a German researcher, feminist, entrepreneur and politician, who is a member of the Green Party. She is credited with playing a role in the development of family benefits in Germany, such as parental allowance and the right to a day-care place for children. From 2011 to 2021 she was a member of the state government of Baden-Württemberg, with responsibility for "Civil Society and Citizen Participation".

Early life Gisela Anna Erler was born on 9 May 1946 in Biberach an der Riss in the state of Baden-Württemberg. She is the daughter of Fritz Erler, who was a member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II, and in 1964 became the deputy chairman of the SPD when Willy Brandt was chairman. She spent her childhood in Tuttlingen and Pforzheim, both in Baden-Württemberg.

Erler studied German, linguistics and sociology in Cologne and Munich where she was involved in the Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund (SDS), the student wing of the SPD. In 1967 she co-founded the left-wing publishing house, Trikont-Verlag, and in 1974 the feminist publisher Frauenoffensive, both based in Munich. She was prosecuted for publishing the autobiography of Bommi Baumann, a left-wing terrorist, eventually being acquitted.

Career After graduating in 1974, Erler worked with the German Youth Institute in Munich, studying the link between gender roles, careers and the family. The focus of her research was on developing new models for working hours, with the research being carried out with local businesses. After a research visit to the US to look at approaches to work-life balance, she authored an international comparative study on parental leave and on steps to re-organize working time. In a study lasting several years, she followed a project on childminders. Third-party childcare for children under the age of three was highly controversial in West Germany at the time, and the concept of childminders was still fairly unknown. Her findings found that children with childminders showed no developmental deficits and, in fact, were less socially inhibited and anxious than children who stay at home with their mothers.

From 2006 she was head of an agency that promoted the concept of multigenerational houses. In 2011, she was appointed by Winfried Kretschmann as State Councillor for Civil Society and Citizen Participation, the first person to hold such a title in Germany. This position arose out of conflict over the Stuttgart 21 railway and urban development project, and her role was seen as being to improve public consultation over government plans. It gave her voting rights in the Baden-Württemberg cabinet and she remained in this role until 2021.

Awards Erler was awarded the Elisabeth Selbert Prize in 2005 by the state government of Hesse. In 2021 she was given the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg.

Publications Frauenzimmer. Für eine Politik des Unterschieds. (Women's room: For a policy of difference). Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin. 1985 Weibliche Ökonomie. Ansätze, Analysen und Forderungen zur Überwindung der patriarchalen Ökonomie. (Female Economy. Approaches, analyses and demands to overcome the patriarchal economy), (with Monika Jaeckel). DJI Verlag. German Youth Institute, Munich. 1989. ISBN 3-87966-304-1 Mütter an die Macht! Die neue Frauen-Bewegun (Mothers to power! The New Women's Movement), (edited with Dorothee Pass-Weingartz). Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbeck. 1987 Schluss mit der Umerziehung. Vom artgerechten Umgang mit den Geschlechtern, (End the re-education. About dealing with the sexes in a way that is appropriate to the species). Verlag Heyne, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-453-18286-8