Women in 20th Century German Society
1910- Clara Zetkin organized the first International Women's Day. Clara Zetkin was a German socialist politician
1919- women got the right to vote
During WWII- held positions usually held by men
After WWII- cleaned up destruction caused by the war, tend to the wounded and buried the dead.
1949- in West Germany, the Basic Law declared that men and women were equal, but it was not until 1957 the the civil code was amended.
1950’s- in West Germany women could be dismissed form civil service when they married, marriage was ideal event hough there was a shortage in young men after the war, men were the breadwinners and women stayed at home
-in East Germany however, women remained in the workforce. Marriage and family laws also had been rewritten to accommodate working mothers. Abortion was legalized and funded by the state in the first trimester of pregnancy. A system of social supports, such as day-care for children, were also put in place to permit women to be both mothers and workers. Women also obtained a higher education while working and keeping house.
1960’s- East German women accounted for about half of all secondary school graduates who had prepared to study at institutes of higher learning in the GDR(German Democratic Republic).
1970’s- the women's movement gathered momentum, having emerged as an outgrowth of student protests in the late 1960s
-the movement succeeded in having legislation passed in 1977 that granted a woman equal rights in marriage. A woman could work outside the home and file for divorce without her husband's permission.
-women also attended college and grad school for professions in medicine, law, etc...
1980’s- A national office for women's affairs was created in West Germany in 1980 and gradually women came to occupy positions of power and prestige. Women worked towards equality in the workforce.
-1988, women constituted a little more than one-third of the total membership of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
1990’s- Rita Süssmuth, president of the Bundestag
2000’s- until 2001 women were barred from serving in combat units in the Bundewehr(Federal Defence Force), being restricted to the medical service and the administration.
Women hard at work in a German armaments factory (World War II)
Men in 20th Century German Society
WWII- men served in the war. The ones that did not serve in the armed forces served in some other job that supported the German army
1950’s- young men were in shortage after the war and were needed to start families. Males were the breadwinners of the family.
Despite significant gains, discrimination remains in united Germany. Income inequalities
persist: a woman's wages and salaries range between 65 percent and 78 percent of a man's for many positions. In most fields, women do not hold key positions. Generally, the higher the position, the more powerful is male dominance.
No comments:
Post a Comment