From 1975 until 1981 I studied social sciences at the university of Konstanz in a reform oriented course of studies that was influenced by the years of 1968 and after. This gave me the opportunity to study marxist and feminist approaches.

From 1982 until 1992 I was employed in Bremen in different occupations in private firms and public services. As an expert in information technologies and work organization I gained experiences with diverse strategies to implement technologies, changes in the organization of work and the design of software systems. This period enabled me to formulate a more concrete and therefore more precise critique of capitalism.

In 1994 I obtained a Dr.rer.pol. at the university of Bremen writing a doctoral thesis on 'The Structure of Work and Technology in the Context of Gender-Hierarchical Division of Labour'. At this time I was appointed a professorship for occupational and social sciences at the Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences. The focus of my work there was on human-oriented concepts proposed to counter a purely technology-centred approach. At the same time, I also concentrated on subjects of women's and gender research. Together with my co-workers I set up the Network Women. Innovation. Technology. In 2001 we organized the first Informatica Feminale in the State of Baden-Wurttemberg, held at Furtwangen.

From 2003 until 2019 I held a professorship for occupational sciences and gender studies at the Hamburg University of Technology. There I headed the research group Work - Gender - Technology with up to 10 scientists. We used gender perspectives to examine issues from labour research and research on technology and the internet as well as research on higher education. An insight into the work of this research group gives the publication care|sex|net|work. Feministische Kämpfe und Kritiken der Gegenwart, edited by Dr. Tanja Carstensen, Prof.Dr. Melanie Groß and Prof.Dr. Kathrin Schrader on the occasion of my 60th birthday.

To further political involvement, with my colleagues Dr. Tanja Carstensen and Prof.Dr. Melanie Groß I founded in the beginning of 2007 the Hamburg Feminist Institute which shut down in 2018.

Also in 2007 I started to cooperate with my colleague Prof.Dr. Nina Degele on the subject of intersectionality. In seminars held parallely at Freiburg and Hamburg and during joint cycling tours we elaborated the intersectional multi-level approach we publicized in 2009 in the book Intersektionalität. Zur Analyse sozialer Ungleichheiten.

Since 2009 I concentrate my research on an politico-economical approach towards reproduction work and also on care work viewed on from the perspective of sociology of work. By combining these two approaches I elaborated an analysis of the crisis of social reproduction. This also motivated my political engagement in the Network Care Revolution. My theoretical and political conclusions I have summarized in the book Care Revolution. Schritte in eine solidarische Gesellschaft, published 2015.

In Avril 2020 I terminated my professional career at the university of Hamburg to get more time for publications and political activities around the transformation strategy of Care Revolution. In March 2021 my new book with the title Solidarische Care-Ökonomie. Revolutionäre Realpolitik für Care und Klima will be published.