Saturday, March 22, 2008

Case Study Part 2

The GDR introduced what seemed to be a new world for women. In their political ideology, women were equal members of society just as men. The new policy had three major differences from the past treatment of women. They were “(1) the realization of legal equality between men and women, (2) the promotion of working women, and (3) special protection of mothers and children” [1]. Women were granted the rights to government funded childcare, abortion, and employment. Emancipating women was part of the socialist ideology. The Socialist Unity Party passed laws that gave women more rights and allowed them to work outside the home. The Familiengesetzbuch (Family Book of Law of the GDR) that began practice in 1965 had many clauses that treated women as equals to men specifically in the home. For example, the book instructed women and men to have an equal partnership in marriage. Men took just as responsible for the children as the women. Also, the law allowed women to have joint ownership of property with their husbands. The emancipation of women seemed to be a reality in the GDR according to their standards of allowing women to work and supporting them in the home[2].

However, as true with many ideas written down by the GDR, in practice this was not necessarily carried. Women were allowed to work, yet they were given special treatment. They could only work during they day and given tasks that were less difficult than the men. Women were also put into specific types of jobs that supported the traditional stereotypes such as education, health care, and textiles. Ironically, women in East Germany brought home 40 percent of the average household income whereas women in West Germany only brought home 18 percent of the household income[3]. However, they were far from being equal to men. There were deep-set expectations as to the role that women were to play and in a society that continued to be run by only men, the stereotypes that said women were less than men continued to play a major role.



[1] Kranz 70

[2] Kranz 74

[3] Kranz 73

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