Sigrid Metz-Göckel

Sigrid Metz-Göckel (née Schneider, 18 August 1940 – 11 February 2025) was a German sociologist, political scientist and social psychologist who specialised in women's and gender studies as well as in educational research and didactics. She was a professor at the University of Dortmund from 1976 to 2005 where she created a didactic centre and pioneered women's studies in Germany, establishing a university course in 1981.

Early life and education She was born Sigrid Schneider on 18 August 1940 in Klein Peterwitz, Gau Silesia. Metz-Göckel was the daughter of Franz-Josef Schneider, a teacher, and his wife Helene. After her father died as a soldier in the Second World War in 1942, in poor conditions. The first station was in Upper Silesia, where she attended Polish primary school. The family lived in Aurich from 1950. They moved to Hanover in 1950 where she attended the humanistic branch of the . before studying sociology at the University of Frankfurt, where her teachers included Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno and Ludwig von Friedeburg.

Career While still in Giessen, Metz-Göckel began to take an interest in women, attending a seminar on the new women's movement in the mid-1970s. She went on to establish a number of women's groups and began looking at women scientists.

In 1976 she was appointed professor at the (Ruhr School of Education) in the Dortmund region, where her objective was to create a didactic centre (Hochschuldidaktisches Zentrum) for three higher education institutions in Dortmund: the University of Dortmund, the Fachhochschule Dortmund and the Pädagogische Hochschule Ruhr.

Metz-Göckel also initiated with students Frauenstudien (women's studies) in 1979, an offer of further education especially directed at women who worked for women (Frauenarbeit) full-time, part-time or as volunteers. Frauenstudien was established in 1981 as an official course of study at the university, She founded the Stiftung Aufmüpfige Frauen (Defiant Women Foundation) in 2004.

Awards In 1998, Metz-Göckel was honoured with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.