Role And Status Of Women In FRG Flashcards
Status after WW2
Many surplus women - 7.3 million in 1948
Country was devastated and people were brought face to face with Nazi atrocities ; many wanted the FRG to be zero hour
Divorce rate rose sharply in the late 1940s due to deprivation and dislocation
ALLIES WORKED NOT ONLY TO REVERT NAZI EUGENIC THEORIES BUT ALSO IDEAS OF INDIVIDUAL FAMILIES MATTERING BUT ECONOMY WAS MAIN THING SO MANY WOMEN HAD TO WORK
Status of women
Few women got involved in Nazi politics due to ingrained Nazi propaganda on how women should be wives and mothers - still hampered them but this was supported in 1953 by the ministry for family affairs which provided mothers/wives with financial care
Government did little to make work attractive for women and Adenauer made speeches about the importance of equality and jobs for women but this did not materialise
Bundestag split between equal right supporters (SPD) and CDU (who did not want to encourage women working)
In law status of women?
Article 3 of Basic Law guaranteed unqualified quality for all citizens although many wanted to add on the “in principle” phrase to make it seem more theoretical LIKE WEIMAR
The revision of the civil code to give women legal freedom did not happen until 1958, before this, married women were still controlled by their husbands
Women and Work
Not until 1977 that the marriage and family law was revised to give women equal rights in marriage ; overturned the civil code law that said women could only work if it did not interfere with the role as a wife and mother which had been in force since 1900 and embodied the kinder kuche kirche spirit
Womens liberation movements in the 1960s were battling this ingrained thinking ; 54% of women said a man’s career was more important than a women’s (1982)
Women’s liberation movements
Active in Germany as they were globally
They were most prominent with students and universities so city based (urban)
In 1967 they set up a commune to live on equal terms but this did not work as the women ended up leaving after 6 months
Action council for Women’s Liberation
January 1968
Feminist organisation
Set up day care centres
Campaign with nursery school teachers to get the government to change the way day care and schools were run
By 1969 the mother faction of the group had split and had been shed for not being theoretical enough
Radical feminism?
Targeted paragraph 218 and abortion rights ; journalist Alice Schwarzenegger led this campaign and put picture on the magazine stern with the caption “we’ve had abortions”
They wrote magazines and pamphlets highlighting the idea of contraception and set up refuges for battered women
Paragraph 218
German Penal code of 1871 crime for women to seek an abortion
What did not happen in West Germany?
Development of women’s groups that focused on actively campaigning for progress in equality in the workplace and laws against sexual discrimination (such as the national organisation for women in the USA)
Abortion?
Law that passed allowing abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy was declared unconstitutional by the federal court in 1975 because it violated the rights of the foetus
MANY WERE ANTI-ABORTION SO BACKED PARA 218
Women’s role and status by 1989
In 1989 there was still a clear demarcation in thinking between mothers and working women which was highlighted when the two germanys United in that year ; women in the DRG were much more equal and far more likely to work full time
In the FRG the fact that married women were still seen in terms of the family gave motherhood a higher status than in many other countries and families had tax breaks and benefits to encourage mothers to stay at home at least for the first 3 years of each child’s life
Only 50% of women with a child under 15 had a job ; driven by the school system which meant women needed to be at home in the afternoon if they had no childcare
