Pre-WWI: Traditional role of women
prior to WWI can be summarized by the “four K;” Kinder (children), Kirche
(church), Küche (kitchen), and Kleider (clothes).
WWI: Women filled the vacancies left by
the mobilized male workers. Many of the jobs were factory or farm related.
Post-WWI: Obtained suffrage in 1919 and began filling up other positions traditionally held by men that were not available during the wartime.
Post-WWI: Obtained suffrage in 1919 and began filling up other positions traditionally held by men that were not available during the wartime.
WWII: Nazi Germany tried to reverse the
rights given to women and once again push the old tradition of child-bearing
and –rearing, though many women helped bring Nazi Germany to power. In the
later years of the war, women were required to be working in mobilized
factories. In addition, roughly one million women had volunteered for auxiliary
forces in the army, including aerial defense.
Post-WWII: Labelled as,
“Trümmerfrauen
or "women of the rubble" because they took care of the "wounded,
buried the dead, salvaged belongings," and they participated in the
"hard task of rebuilding war-torn Germany by simply clearing away"
the rubble and ruins of war.”
-Wikipedia
In West Germany, the Basic Law was
passed in 1949 stating the equality of men and women. This did not take root in
civil positions until 1957 when the civil code was amended for this. Women were
pushed back to being homemakers and housewives and urged out of working
positions where migrant workers and immigrants took up the working positions.
In East Germany, however, women remained heavily in the work force due to
government requirements. Education and vocational schools were opened to allow
women whilst still allowing them to maintain their homes. The government
created childcare networks and even funded first trimester abortions. Women
made the primary of the workforce because it was mostly men who were escaping
over to West Germany.
From the early 1950’s on, women in West
Germany didn’t get much educational or professional equality. It took until the
‘80’s until women in West Germany reached a comparable number of entrants to
men. In East Germany, the number was already comparable between the two sexes
by the mid 1960’s in terms of post-secondary education.
Outside of the education industry, women still have only been receiving around three-quarters the wages of men and even less of upper level positions, including, but not limited to, management, political leaders, professors, and specialty doctors and physicians. Following the unification of Germany, many women in the former East Germany were pushed to part time or unemployment entirely. That the supplements the government used to provide were taken away, like the after school centers and daycare for children, many of the women chose to be sterilized, which was a major factor for the dramatic birth rate decrease from 12 per 1000 to 5.3 per 1000.
No comments:
Post a Comment