Schultz grew up in a female household; her father committed suicide in World War II. After a few semesters studying journalism, North American studies and Romance studies in Berlin, she went to the USA. In 1965, she graduated with a master's thesis on "The Role of Broadcasting in Africa with Special Emphasis on West Africa" her studies in broadcasting, television and film at the University of Michigan. However, her dream of working as a documentary filmmaker on television proved to be unrealizable: "My job interview at CBS or NBC was such that the gentlemen asked me, 'What do you mean, why we hire women here?' That was a rhetorical question - and the answer: 'Yes, as a cleaning woman and as secretaries.' " In 1965 Schultz taught at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In 1966/67 she went to Puerto Rico, where she worked in the Anti-Poverty Programs of the Office of Economic Opportunity. From 1969 to 1970, she taught seminars on women's studies and on race and class at Columbia College Chicago and was active in the women’s movement. In 1972 Schultz was awarded a Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1973 she returned to Germany and taught women's studies and cultural and immigration issues at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin. Alongside, she established together with a few fellow campaigners a book publishing house specialized on feminist literature and a feminist women's health center in 1974. As a visiting professor, she taught sociology of education at State University of New York in 1981. In 1984, she helped civil rights activist and poet Audre Lorde, whom she got to know at the 1980 UN World Conference on Women in Copenhagen, to become a visiting professor at FU Berlin. In 1989 she habilitated at the Institute of Sociology of the Free University of Berlin. In 1991, Schultz followed the call for a professorship for "Social and Educational Work with Women" at the Department of Social Work and Social Education of Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin, where she remained until her retirement in 2004. Her work focused on women in social work, intercultural social work, medical sociology and social education, socialization and cultural competence in psychosocial care. In 2011 Schultz was honored by Peter-André Alt with the "Margherita von Brentano Award", the highest endowed award for gender studies and women's projects in Germany. In 2012 Schultz became dignified the "Magnus-Hirschfeld-Award" for her life's work as one of the first activists of the lesbian and women's movement since the 1970s, an award donated by the gay section of SPD to honor outstanding achievements for the emancipation of lesbians, gays and transgender people. Schultz invested her prize money on the one hand in the structure of an Audre Lorde archive at the FU Berlin, on the other in a documentary about the Berlin years by Audre Lorde. Schultz was producer and director of the film, while she wrote the screenplay together with her partner Ika Hügel-Marshall. The film had its premiere at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival and was shown at numerous other international festivals.
Books
Dagmar Schultz, Simone Langenheder: Die Entwicklung der Frauengesundheitszentren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und ihre Bedeutung für die Gesundheitsversorgung von FrauenBMFSFJ 1996
Dagmar Schultz: Ein Mädchen ist fast so gut wie ein Junge: Sexismus in der Erziehung. Band 1: Interviews, Berichte, Analysen. 2. Auflage 1980
Dagmar Schultz: Ein Mädchen ist fast so gut wie ein Junge: Sexismus in der Erziehung. Band 2: Schülerinnen und Pädagogen berichten. 1979
Dagmar Schultz, Carol Hagemann-White: Das Geschlecht läuft immer mit: die Arbeitswelt von Professorinnen und Professoren. Centaurus 1991
