Women Roles In The German Democratic Republic 

The German Democratic Republic, which governed eastern Germany from 1949 until 1990, would have liked its citizens to believe that the government was committed to the emancipation of women. After all, socialist theorists established that the liberation of women would come hand in hand with that of the working class. However, the GDR’s policy toward women and the experiences of East German women show that the interests of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) lied in protecting the status quo and upholding traditional gender roles. There were stark differences between the lives of women in the East and West, plenty of which make it seem like East German women might have had it better than those in the West. The employment of women was highly promoted in the GDR, while women in the West had a much harder time finding their way into the workforce. For the first time ever, a generation of girls grew up expecting to one day have a career. Women in the East had not only jobs, but guaranteed job security after a pregnancy leave. After the woman had children, it was much easier to find child care facilities in the East than in the West. In regards to the political representation of women, the GDR had much more to boast than West Germany. On top of all of this, East Germany even made a point of celebrating International Women’s Day every year. These points all appear to add up to the idea that the East was better for women than the West, but there were plenty of problems with the state’s policy toward women. Women in the GDR had a much easier time becoming employed, but that was mostly out of economic necessity. It was crucial to the East German economy that the women worked. The state decided who would work as what, and it consistently filled low-paying jobs traditionally considered “women’s work” with women.

Preference was always given to men in the hiring process, and it was nearly impossible for women to break into leadership roles in the workplace. Even though the women were able to work, the SED viewed them first and foremost as mothers. Working women were still expected to perform all the traditional household duties as well as take the reins in regards to raising the children. Mothers received maternity leave, but paternity leave was unheard of; this was indicative of the attitude that fathers didn’t necessarily need to spend time with their children. Classic gender roles were absorbed by the children. Despite learning equality in schools, the behavior of the parents had a greater effect on them, perpetuating centuries-old ideas in a society that claimed to be for the betterment of all people. The women of East Germany had no formal organization to represent their political interests, and the most influential women’s movements of the GDR didn’t arise until the last few years of SED power. When women did try to organize themselves into a caucus for their own interests in the forties, the SED banned it and then recreated it with the party in control. There were a few female members of the East German parliament, but they had little power as the voice of women. The women of the German Democratic Republic lacked feminist consciousness, and this was because, according the state, equality had been achieved, and there was no reason to look into the matter further. The SED did not get its power from the people, like the party of a truly socialist society would. It got its power from the Soviet Union, and therefore needed to expend most of its energy upholding the status quo and not developing. In the end, the state of the GDR and the family units within them were able to depend on women to concede their own interests for those of the patriarchal and oppressive social climate of East Germany.