Women in the FRG

Question 1

How did legislation in the Basic Law discriminate against women?

Answer 1

The 1950 Federal Republic Law included a clause for celibacy for female public officials.

Question 2

How were women payed less?

Answer 2

Women’s pay for full-time employment was still 1/3 lower than that of a man.

Question 3

What evidence is there of few women being in managerial roles?

Answer 3

Half of women were school teachers but only 20% were school principals.

Question 4

What did Adenauer say about women in employment?

Answer 4

He spoke about the importance of making more jobs available to women and working conditions more equal but the government did not make this happen. After the war, women were encouraged back to the home.

Question 5

What was Article 3 of the Basic Law?

Answer 5

It guaranteed unqualified “equality under the law” for all citizens.

Question 6

How many women were there on the parliamentary council who drew up the Basic Law?

Answer 6

Only 4

Question 7

What did Elizabeth Selbert (SPD) fail to acquire in the Basic Law?

Answer 7

An unconditional gender equality clause.

Question 8

What percentage of the Bundestag was made up of women in 1972 and again in 1987?

Answer 8

1971 - 5.8%
1987 - 15.4%

Question 9

When was the Marriage and Family Law revised?

Answer 9

1977

Question 10

What did the revision of the Marriage and Family Law do?

Answer 10

It gave women equal rights and shared responsibility in marriage. It also overturned the Civil Code law (1900) which stated that women could only work if it did not interfere with the role as wife and mother.

Question 11

What ideology was widespread in the FRG?

Answer 11

Kinder Küche Kirche (alongside a strong church influence)

Question 12

What was there widespread opposition to?

Answer 12

Pro-abortion campaigns

Question 13

What law was passed in 1974 with regards to abortion?

Answer 13

A law which allowed abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Question 14

What happened to the abortion law in 1975?

Answer 14

It was declared unconstitutional by the Federal Court due to huge public outcry - saying it violated the rights of the foetus.

Question 15

What law was passed in 1976 with regards to abortion?

Answer 15

A law which allowed abortion only on grounds of social indicators. This law remained in place until the late 90s.

Question 16

What did radical, women-focused groups target?

Answer 16

Paragraph 218 of the German Penal Code (1871) which made it a crime for women to seek an abortion on the grounds of non-medical reasons. Magazines and pamphlets were published by these groups.

Question 17

When were women’s liberation movements become more active?

Answer 17

Throughout the 1960s and 70s - they sought to overturn society’s established role of a woman as a wife, mother and homemaker.

Question 18

Who did the FRG turn to to satisfy the booming economy’s labour requirements?

Answer 18

Guest workers. As a result, women became homemaker and mothers and largely withdrew from employment.

Question 19

Who was Franz Josef Wuermeling and what did he argue?

Answer 19

He was the minister for family affairs. In 1961 he argued that mothers going to work was a “forced evil.”

Question 20

Which party did women find more political opportunities with?

Answer 20

The Green Party who focused on issues like abortion.

Question 21

What happened to women’s employment between 1950 to 1970?

Answer 21

1950 - 44%
1970 - 50%

Question 22

What happened to the divorce rate between 1960 and 1990?

Answer 22

It increased from 49,000 in 1960 to 123,000 by 1990.

Question 23

What law was passed in 1977 with regards to divorce?

Answer 23

A no-guilt divorce law which granted divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

Question 24

What did a 1982 survey show?

Answer 24

50% of men and 54% of women believed a man’s career was more important than his wife’s 70% of men and women believed that men should work and women should not care for the home.

Question 25

What was there a lack of in political groups?

Answer 25

Women’s groups that focused on campaigning for progress in equality in the workplace and laws against sexual discrimination. (unlike other countries at the time)

Question 26

When was the Action Council for Women’s Liberation set up?

Answer 26

1968 in West Berlin - it was a feminist organisation that worked to set up day-care centres for children.

Question 27

How did women help rebuild the German economy after WW2?

Answer 27

Women partook in cleaning rubble, building and office work in the immediate aftermath of the war, due to a lack of able-bodied men.

Question 28

What percentage of married women with a child under 15 had a paid job in 1989?

Answer 28

Only 50% - half of these were part-time

Question 29

What did school hours mean for many women?

Answer 29

That they had to be at home in the afternoon if they had no childcare.

Question 30

When was the Civil Code of 1900 finally revised to give women legal freedom?

Answer 30

In 1958 - before this, married women still needed their husband’s permission to go to work and the husband got full control of women’s property on marriage.