Marianne Schnitger: pioneer of the study of the process of individualization of women

Abstract

The notion of individualization has been present since the beginnings of sociology asa discipline, but today it has acquired an unprecedented protagonism. Contemporary authors who deal with individualization do not always dialogue with the preceding tradition, and when they do, they generally and rightfully recapture Durkheim and Simmel. Marianne Schnitger, contemporary of these two authors, is not taken into account, although she participated in the discussions during this foundational period of sociology and debated with the two authors mentioned in subjects thattoday, in light of the process of contemporary individualization, they have becomecentral. The article proposes a dialogue between Schnitger’s approaches regarding the changes in the condition of women in the first decade of the twentieth century and the individualization studies by Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, which are understood under the formula of quit “living for others” in order to “live one’s own life”.