Gender Flashcards
Until what year was housework legally defined as a wife/mother’s job in West Germany?
1977
How did the 1958 Equal Rights Law in West Germany confirm traditional gender hierarchies and continue to subordinate women? (2)
It did not relinquish a father’s prerogative in disputes over the upbringing of children or his legal status as the representative of the family.
Despite the Federal Constitutional Court’s 1959 intervention in West Germany over the unconstitutional nature of the 1958 Equal Rights Law, what remained the same?
The concept of “housewife’s marriage” was unaffected by the changes and the idea of a “natural functional division” between sexes was still unchallenged.
What did the Allied Control Council ban in West Germany after the war? (3)
Books advocating violence, wearing military dress, fencing sports clubs
Why was the demilitarisation of masculinity so important to postwar reconstruction in West Germany?
They needed men to return to the workforce and industries to help rebuild the damage and needed to distance them from crimes committed as part of the Wehrmacht and the mass collaboration under Nazi regime
Despite the West German ideal of the male breadwinner and the housewife in the immediate postwar, why did wives often work?
New luxuries could not be afforded by the average income of the family man
By what year had the economic miracle meant that consumer goods were more accessible to West Germans if one saved up?
1952
In a 1956/7 survey of West German women, why did most women say that they worked?
So that they could raise their standard of living and afford new consumer luxuries, not out of economic necessity
In a 1956/7 survey of West German women, what were the social implications of being a working mother?
Social scorn was directed at mothers who “neglected” their children working during the day.
What do the results of the 1956/7 survey of West German women confirm of De Beauvoir’s claims in the Second Sex?
That motherhood was an imposition and restricted women from being able to do what they pleased due to social pressures and lack of support
How many West German women had tried the contraceptive pill by 1964?
Only 2000
In the early 1960s what were West German activists furious about regarding the contraceptive pill?
That some doctors would not prescribe the pill to unmarried women - it became a cause célèbre.
By 1968 how many West German women were using the pill?
1.4 million
What did Beate Ushe learn in the immediate postwar period (1945-6) from housewives?
Former soldiers were returning from war and impregnating their wives with no regard for the fact they had “no apartment, no income, and no future” for any children.
What did many women who found themselves pregnant with no prospects in West Germany do following the war?
Visit untrained abortionists as abortion was illegal
What did Beate Ushe do in response to the issues facing many young housewives following WWII?
She set up a mail-order sex shop and put together resources for women
What sort of things did Ushe’s business do?
Gave information for women detailing different contraceptive methods, sold condoms and books on marital hygiene, and highlighted that sex should be a joint decision and discussed way to make sex more equal.
How large had Beate Ushe’s sex shop grown by 1962?
It had 1.5 million customers, 200 employees, and had opened the first sex shop in Flensburg.
According to Herzog in Sex after Fascism what did the 1960s give rise to in West Germany amongst the young predominantly?
The idea that liberated sexuality was anti-fascist, and that this was the appropriate way to move away from the Nazi past and prevent a repeat of WWII.
What did young radicals in WG use to try to understand their parent’s generation’s participation in the persecution/murder of European jewry?
Austrian Freudian Marxist Wilhelm Reich’s 1920s/30s work
What was the central argument of Wilhelm Reich’s 1920s/30s work?
That “cruel character traits” were evident among those who were sexually dissatisfied while sexually satisfied people displayed “gentleness and goodness.”
What did young WG radicals aim to do by following Reich’s guidance?
Treat their young children’s sexuality as normal and healthy rather than dangerous and deserving of repression so that they could prevent the formation of fascistic personalities int he future
When was consensual adult homosexuality decriminalised in West Germany?
May 1969 but only for those over 21
What was decriminalised at the same time as consensual adult homosexuality in West Germany?
Heterosexual adultery
What did West German journalist Oswalt Kolle produce?
A series of extremely successful movies where naked couples awkwardly discussed their sexual problems with experience voice-overs providing reassurance and solutions, encouraging communication for healthy marriages
When were Kolle’s movies successful among the rise of movies about Sex education/encouraging healthy sexual relationships in West Germany?
Predominantly in the 1970s - suggesting 1968 was the turning point but things didn’t actually change until the 70s
Which Kolle movies did air in 1968?
The Wonder of Love and Sexual Partnership
In France, who was housing legislation introduced to deal with the housing crisis advantageous for?
Those with large families
What ministry was established in France during the immediate postwar period due to demographic anxiety?
The Ministry for Public Health and Population
In France, how did the government assist young couples, and what was some of this assistance conditional on?
With loans - some conditionally demanded the couple had a child
When did the family allowance payments from the French state increase?
When couples had more children
When was the husband formally deposed as head of the family in France?
Not until 1970
Until when were French women legally classed as minors?
Well into the 1960s?
What did women being legally classed as minors mean?
They still needed paternal or a husband’s consent in order to open a bank account or work outside the home
What happened to the numbers of women in the workforce in France between 1954-62?
Numbers dropped
In the 1960s, how much less did French women earn than men?
10% less
In the 1960s, how did French women suffer job insecurity?
They were the last hired and the first fired
Why did many French women decide to stay at home and receive benefits rather than work in the 1960s?
It was a better financial decision
In France, what sort of labour were women disproportionately involved in?
Unskilled labour
In France, how did working women’s tasks differ from men’s?
They were more repetitive, sedentary, and unchallenging - similar to household tasks
What does the nature of women’s employment in France in the 1950s and 1960s confirm of De Beauvoir’s arguments?
That the work women were doing was not emancipatory and not the same as men’s and thus forced them to be housewives
What percentage of unskilled female factory workers in France would have preferred to do something else as Duchen notes?
84%
Why could the female factory workers Duchen notes not do something else?
Because they lacked the qualifications
According to the study which Duchen notes, what did most French female factory workers perceive industrial work as?
Something to endure until marriage allowed them to leave work
In France when was the pill originally available?
Only by prescription to “Regulate menstruation”
In France, why was the promotion of contraception illegal during the 1950s and 1960s?
Because it had been criminalised since 1920 due to demographic anxieties in the interwar period
When was the French Movement for Family Planning established?
1956
By the 1960s, how many centres did the French Movement for Family Planning have across the country?
200
How did the French Movement for Family Planning openly flout the 1920 law against promoting contraception?
They promoted contraception including the pill
What does the French Movement for Family Planning’s open flouting of contraceptive laws reveal?
The clear contradiction between practice and legislation in France with regard to reproductive rights
What prompted de Gaullist deputy’s proposal to decriminalise the promotion of contraception?
The clear contradiction between practice and legislation
When was the decriminalisation of promoting contraception in France given assent?
1967
What did the French government hope legalising the promotion of contraception would do?
Reduce the number of illegal abortions taking place
Despite abortion not being legalised until 1974, how do we know many women were still getting them during this period?
It was the single biggest mobilising issue for the Movement for the Liberation of Women founded in 1970 in the wake of 1968 protests.
1971 Manifesto of the 343.
What were popular slogans of the French student revolts of 1968?
“The more I make love, the more I make revolution”
Demands for “orgasm without limits”
Why did student revolts at Nanterre actually begin?
Because of the frustration of male students over not being able to access female dorms
Were the student protests of 1968 in France gender equal?
They were male dominated and the experiences of marginalisation motivated the organising of feminists in the 1970s
Which Algerian woman served in the leadership of the Women’s International Democratic Federation?
Mamia Chetnouf
Who was Mamia Chetnouf a representative for at Women’s International Democratic Federation?
The FLN
What was Mamia Chetnouf the former president of?
The nationalist, all-Muslim women’s organisation the AMFA
Where was Mamia Chetnouf a prominent spokesperson?
WIDF congresses and meetings
When do French women get the vote compared to Algerian women?
1944 vs “Indigenous Muslim” women in French Algeria are not extended the vote until 1958
Where was the Women’s International Democratic Federation founded and when?
In Paris in 1945
Who was the founding President of the WIDF?
French woman Eugenie Cotton
Where did the WIDF move to once it was banned by the French authorities for being Communist-leading and pro-Soviet?
East Berlin where it was supported by the East German government
What happened to Algerian women in France when they protested against the arrest, torture, and deportation of their sons and husbands back to Algeria?
They were arrested
How did the Union of French women support arrested Algerian mothers?
They organised the collection of milk, food, and money, and looked after their children
What did the WIDF’s statement to the UN Secretary-General in 1947 highlight?
The suffering of Algerian women throughout military operations, the widespread use of torture, exile, and execution without trial