Following her studies, she initially worked as a contract teacher at the vocational school in Reutlingen and later as a member of staff at the adult education center in Düsseldorf.
[citation needed] In 1966, she received a doctoral scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and returned to the University of Göttingen.
[2] In 1968, Gerstenberger was delegated by the Federal Assistants' Conference to the founding senate for the University of Bremen, which began its work on September 19.
At the Historical Materialism Conference 2023, she was honored for the English-language version of her book Markt und Gewalt.
Die Funktionsweise des historischen Kapitalismus with the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize .