Gender Equality in Post-Unification Germany: Between GDR Legacies and EU-Level Pressures

Abstract

East German writer Christa Wolf’s provocative question ‘what remains?’ following the demise of the GDR held particular relevance for unifying differently gendered societies. The GDR had championed its female workforce, comprehensive childcare and liberal abortion rights, in stark contrast to the Federal Republic. West German feminists, who had historically mistrusted the state, had only just begun to scale up their engagement in and with political institutions when the Berlin Wall fell. Unification provided the context for renegotiating gender politics, in particular, women’s economic independence and the state’s role in actively securing gender equality and women’s political participation. At the same time, European Union actors increased pressure on national policy-makers, particularly regarding gender equality in the workplace. This article unpacks GDR legacies and EU-level pressures in regard to several policies that formed the core of post-unification gender politics: (1) constitutional equality; (2) gender quotas; and (3) childcare. While EU frames and policies are widely recognised as having played a significant role in shaping the equality agenda, I argue that in all three cases, the legacies of East German gender politics have impacted on post-unification reforms more than previously acknowledged.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sabine Lang is Director of the Center for West European Studies, Chair of the European Studies Program, and Associate Professor of International and European Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies of the University of Washington. Her areas of research are gender politics in Germany and the EU and comparative politics with an emphasis on NGOs and transnational movements. Current research projects focus on the implementation of voluntary party quotas in Germany as well as on inter-sectional mobilizations in the German refugee crisis.

Notes

1 See Helga A. Welsh, ‘Debates and Perceptions about German Unification. The Centrality of Discourse’, in K.H. Jarausch (ed.), United Germany. Debating Processes and Prospects (New York: Berghahn, 2013), pp.64–82.

2 The term gender regime refers to the organisation of gender relations in Germany. It encompasses institutions such as the family and the state.

3 Myra Marx Ferree, ‘Sociological Perspectives on Gender in Germany’, in S. Friedrichsmeyer and P. Herminghouse (eds), Women in German Yearbook (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), pp.27–38.

4 Irene Dölling, ‘Between Hope and Hopelessness: Women in the GDR After the “Turning Point”’, Feminist Review 39 (1992), p.11.

5 Paul Pierson, ‘The Study of Policy Development’, Journal of Policy History 17/1 (2005), p.40.

6 Positive action is defined as ‘measures targeted at a particular group to redress injustice or to offset disadvantages arising from past inequalities’. Alison E. Woodward, ‘From Equal Treatment to Gender Mainstreaming and Diversity Management’, in G. Abels and J.M. Mushaben (eds), Gendering the European Union. New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012), p.94.

7 Jutta Limbach and Marion Eckertz-Höfer, Frauenrechte im Grundgesetz des geeinten Deutschland (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1993), p.47. However, the labour market was segmented: among lower wage earners, women made up 86 per cent.

8 Dölling, ‘Between Hope and Helplessness’, p. 8. See also the comprehensive assessment of GDR policy provisions for working mothers in Inga Markovits, ‘Frauen-Sache – Zu Astrid Bärwolfs “Kinder!Kinder!Mutterschaft und Erwerbstätigkeit in Ostdeutschland”’, Neue Politische Literatur 59/3 (2014), pp.389–99.

9 Expressed succinctly in the 1990 literary text of writer Gabi Kachold: ‘es gab kein entrinnen aus diesem schema, es gab nur langsam eine information dass die ddr das land mit einer der grössten scheidungsraten ist  …  die frau arbeitend die frau früh das kind aus dem schlaf reissend die frau an den mittleren medizinischen oder bürokratischen schlecht bezahlten arbeitsplätzen die frau in den kaufschlangen stehend die frau ermüdet abgekämpft mit den kindern im bett und der mann fängt an zu trinken oder kommt betrunken oder abgearbeitet oder entmutigt von der arbeit  …  ein nicht lebbares frauenlebenskonzept’ .Gabriele Kachold, Gegen die Führungsrolle des Mannes, pp.92–94, cited in S. Wilke, Ist alles so geblieben wie es früher war (Würzburg: Könighausen und Neumann, 2000), p.25.

10 Dölling, ‘Between Hope and Helplessness’, p.5.

11 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Federal Reserve Economic Data (2016), Activity Rate Females Aged 25‒54 Germany and US.

12 Sabine Lang and Birgit Sauer, ‘Does Federalism Impact Gender Architectures? The Case of Women’s Policy Agencies in Germany and Austria’, Publius ‒ The Journal of Federalism 43/1 (2013), pp 68–89; Myra Marx Ferree, Varieties of Feminism. German Gender Politics in Global Perspective (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012); Gabriele Abels and Heather MacRae (eds), Gendering the European Union. New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012); Ilona Ostner, ‘Farewell to the Family As We Know it: Family Policy Change in Germany’, German Policy Studies 6/10 (2010), pp.211–44; Brigitte Young, Triumph of the Fatherland: German Unification and the Marginalization of Women (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999).

13 Ilona Ostner, ‘Back to the Fifties: Gender and Welfare in Unified Germany’, Social Politics 1/1 (1994), pp.32–59. Also BMFSFJ Seventh Family Report. Families between Flexibility and Dependability – Perspectives for a Life Cycle-Related Family Policy. Results and scenarios of the report drafted by the committee of experts (Berlin, 2003), available from http://www.bmfsfj.de (accessed 20 October 2015).

14 Barbara Einhorn, Cinderella Goes to the Market: Citizenship, Gender and Women’s Movements in East Central Europe (London: Verso, 1993); Ute Gerhard, Atempause: Feminismus als demokratisches Projekt (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1999).

15 Brigitte Young, Triumph of the Fatherland: German Unification and the Marginalization of Women (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999).

16 Ingrid Miethe, ‘From “Mothers of Revolution” to Fathers of Unification’, Social Politics 6/1 (1999), pp.1–22. Also Young, Triumph of the Fatherland.

17 Ferdinand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein, ‘History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Durée’, Review (Ferdinand Braudel Center) 22/2 (2009), pp.171–203.

18 Ute Gerhard, ‘Einleitung’, Feministische Studien extra: Frauen für eine neue Verfassung 9 (1991), pp.3–6.

19 27. Sitzung des Ausschusses für Grundsatzfragen, in E. Pikart and W. Werner (eds), Der Parlamentarische Rat 1948–49 (1993), p.771, cited in I. Markovits, ‘Constitution Making after National Catastrophies: Germany in 1949 and 1990’, Williams & Mary Law Review 49/4 (2008), Article 9, pp.1307–46.

20 Inga Markovits, Justice in Lüritz. Experiencing Socialist Law in East Germany (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010), p.80.

21 Ibid., p.81; also Dölling, ‘Between Hope and Helplessness’, p. 7.

22 Markovits, Justice in Lüritz, p.81.

23 Email correspondence with Inga Marakovits in March 2016: Markovits, one of the foremost legal historians on GDR law, has not been able to gather evidence of how widely this questionnaire was circulated. However, she assumes that it came from the Ministry of Justice and was ‘the product of a ministerial attempt to collect statistical data’.

24 Barbara Boettger, ‘Gleichberechtigung – ein uneingelöstes Versprechen’, Feministische Studien extra: Frauen für eine neue Verfassung 9 (1991), p.27.

25 Unification Treaty, 31 Aug. 1990, paragraph 31, available from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=550 (accessed 30 April 2016).

26 Gerhard, ‘Einleitung’, p.4.

27 Verfassungsentwurf des Runden Tisches from April 1990, available from http://www.documentarchiv.de/ddr/1990/ddr-verfassungsentwurf_runder-tisch.html#I (accessed 18 April 2015).

28 Limbach and Eckertz-Höfer, Frauenrechte im Grundgesetz, p.30.

29 Brandenburg Minister Marianne Birthler, in ibid., p.36.

30 Gesetz zur Änderung des Grundgesetzes 1994, BGBL I 3146. Artikel 3 (1) Alle Menschen sind vor dem Gesetz gleich. (2) Männer und Frauen sind gleichberechtigt. Der Staat fördert die tatsächliche Durchsetzung der Gleichberechtigung von Frauen und Männern und wirkt auf die Beseitigung bestehender Nachteile hin.

31 Limbach and Eckertz-Höfer, Frauenrechte im Grundgesetz, p.15.

32 See e.g. Ute Gerhard, ‘Fünfzig Jahre Gleichberechtigung – eine Springprozession’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 24–25 (2008), pp.3–10.

33 Gosta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), p.202.

34 See Gisela Shaw’s study of the feminised notary profession in the GDR and their fate after unification. Gisela Shaw, ‘Window of Opportunity or Flash in the Pan? Women Notaries in the New Federal States of Germany’, German Life and Letters 50/4 (1997), pp.557–73.

35 Unabhängiger Fruenverband DDR, ‘Frauen in der Offensive: Das Programm’ 2/17/90, part IV.1, available from http://www.ddr89.de/ufv/UFV19.html (accessed 13 March 2016).

36 Amongst others, Wolfgang Ullmann, Green MP and former East German dissident, demanded in 1992 that the rewriting of the Constitution be used to include a 50 per cent gender quota in the Constitution; see Limbach and Eckertz-Höfer, Frauenrechte im Grundgesetz, p.63.

37 Eva Schäfer, cited in Ute Gerhard and Ingrid Miethe, ‘Debatten und Missverständnisse unter Feministinnen aus Ost- und Westdeutschland in der Nachwendezeit – ein nachholender Dialog’, in I. Miethe, C. Kajatin and J. Pohl (eds), Geschlechterkonstruktionen in Ost und West (Münster: lit Verlag, 2004), p.338.

38 Christel Hanewinckel (1992), in Limbach and Eckertz-Höfer, Frauenrechte im Grundgesetz, p.64.

39 Mary Elise Sarotte, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014).

40 Ferree, Varieties of Feminism, p.165.

41 Myra Marx Ferree, ‘Institutionalizing Gender Equality: Feminist Politics and Equality Offices’, German Politics and Society 25/24 (1991), pp.53–66.

42 Arbeitsmarktpolitisches Rahmenprogramm ‘Arbeitsplätze fur Berlin’, April 1991. Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, 12. Wahlperiode, Drucksache 12/327, 22 May 1991.

43 Decision of Federal Constitutional Court BVerfGE 85, 191ff., 28 Jan. 1992.

44 BMFSFJ, Gender Datenreport zur Gleichstellung vpn Frauen und Männern in der Bundesrpublik (München: Deutsches Jugendinstitut and Statistisches Bundesamt, 2005).

45 Data from Rainer Geissler, Sozialer Umbruch in Ostdeutschland (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 1993), p.86.

46 See Dölling, ‘Between Hope and Hopelessness’, p.9, for East German data; Helga Lukoschat, ‘Parité in der Politik’, Vortrag auf der Bundeskonferenz der BAG der Kommunalen Frauenbueros, 28 Jan.2014, for data on unified Germany.

47 Eva Kolinsky, ‘Political Participation and Parliamentary Careers: Women’s Quotas in West Germany’, West European Politics 14/1 (1991), pp.56–72.

48 Günther Schmid, ‘Women in the Public Sector’, in OECD (ed.), Women and Structural Change: New Perspectives (Paris: OECD, 1994), pp.133–166.

49 ‘Bericht zur Frauenförderung in der Bundesverwaltung’, Der Spiegel, Stuss vom Mädel, 29 Nov. 1993, p.49.

50 Decision quotas stipulate that in case of equal qualification of a woman and a man, the candidate of the underrepresented sex will be hired or advanced. Goal quotas are generally employed through affirmative action plans, stating explicit advancement goals for women at certain professional levels. See Blanca Rodriguez-Ruiz and Ute Sacksofsky, ‘Gender in the German Constitution’, in B. Baines and R. Rubio-Marín (eds), The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence (New York: Cambridge UP, 2005), p.150.

51 Sabine Lang, ‘Gender Quotas in Germany: Diffusion, Derailment, and the Quest for Parity Democracy’, in E. Lépinard and R.M. Rubio (eds), Transforming Gender Equality: The Irresistible Rise of Gender Quotas in Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

52 1989: North Rhine-Westphalia; 1990: Bremen, Berlin; 1991: Hamburg; 1993: Hessen; 1994: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig Holstein; 1995: Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate; 1996: Bavaria, Saarland; 1998: Thuringia (based on F. Guetzkow et al., Landesgleichstellungsgesetze im Vergleich, pp.29–30, available at http://www.gew.de/Binaries/Binary4481/landesgleichstellungsgesetz.pdf (accessed 25 January 2016).

53 Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz 2001, Bundesgesetzblatt 1, 3234ff.(FFG) (Bundesanzeiger Publ.: Bonn).

54 See Anke J. Stock, ‘Affirmative Action: A German Perspective on the Promotion of Women’s Rights with Regard to Employment’, Journal of Law and Society 33/1 (2006), pp.59–73.

55 Article 11 FFG: Federal Board Recruitment Law, see FN 53 (Bundesanzeiger Publ.: Bonn).

56 Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz, 30 Nov. 2001, BGBL I, p.3234, see FN 53 (Bundesanzeiger Publ.: Bonn).

57 Marschall v. Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Case C-409/95 [1997] ECR I-6363.

58 For a detailed analysis see Agnes Hubert, ‘Gendering Employment Policy’, in G. Abels and J.M. Mushaben (eds), Gendering the European Union. New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012), pp.146–68.

59 For an overview see Abels and Mushaben (eds), Gendering the European Union ; and Johanna Kanola, Gender and the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010).

60 Margharete Nimsch, ‘Eine neue Verfassung fuer Frauen’, Feministische Studien extra: Frauen fuer eine neue Verfasung 9 (1991), p.9.

61 Elke Holst and Julia Schimeta, ‘Slightly More Women in Germany’s Corporate Boardrooms: Especially in DAX 30 Companies’, DIW Economic Bulletins 3 (2013), pp.3–14.

62 ‘Battle with Brussels: Germany to Lobby Against Gender Quotas’, Der Spiegel, 6 March 2014, available from http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-to-lobby-against-eu-gender-quota-a-887174.html (accessed 10 April 2016).

63 Jabeen Bhatti, ‘The Quota Wars’, German Times, 2011, available from http://www.german-times.com (accessed 04 February 2015).

64 Melissa Eddy, ‘Merkel Concedes on Quotas for Women’, New York Times, 18 May 2013, available from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/global/merkel-concedes-on-quotas-for-women.html (accessed 21 July 2017).

65 Joachim Frank, ‘Interview with Chancellor Angela Merkel’, Berliner Zeitung, 8 Dec. 2014, available from http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kanzlerin-angela-merkel-im-interview--ich-stehe-hinter-der-frauenquote--252292-seite2 (accessed 18 June 2017).

66 Joyce Mushaben argues in her forthcoming book on ‘Madame Chancellor’ that a similar pragmatic turn is evident in Merkel’s stance on the CEU quorum, at first rejecting it, but ultimately seeing it as necessary to advance women.

67 There were, however, also other voices. Among the most controversial was that of Kansas University economics professor Harry Shaffer, whose 1981 study on ‘Women in the two Germanies’ reached the conclusion that childcare facilities in the GDR were pedagogically superior to those in West Germany. Harry Shaffer, Women in the Two Germanies (New York: Pergamon, 1981).

68 Barbara Galaktionow, ‘Kinderkrippen vor und nach dem Mauerfall. Vom Schreckensbild zum Zukunftsmodell’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10 Nov. 2014, available from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/kinderkrippen-vor-und-nach-dem-mauerfall-vom-schreckensbild-zum-zukunftsmodell-1.2213149 (accessed 11 October 2017).

69 Vera Schröder, ‘Superstars’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 25 Feb. 2016, available from http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/geburtenrate-in-muenchen-superstars-1.2880512 (accessed 11 October 2017).

70 Ilona Ostner, Michael Reif and Hannu Turba, Family Policies in Germany, Report (Utrecht University, 2003), p.14, available from https://www.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/research/nordic/gerpoli.PDF (accessed 22 March 2016).

71 Statistisches Bundesamt, 20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit (Wiesbaden: Statistisches Bundesamt, 2010), p.14.

72 Birthler 1992, cited in Limbach and Eckertz-Hoefer, Frauenrechte im Grundgesetz, p.36.

73 Unification Treaty, 31 Aug. 1990, Einigungsvertrag BGBl. 1990 II, S. 889.

74 European Commission, Council Recommendation on Child Care 92/241/EEC, available from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31992H0241 (accessed 14 April 2016).

75 Deutscher Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 13/19, Submission of the SPD Fraction: Participation of the Federal Level in an action programme to implement the right for childcare (Drucksache 13/412), 10 Feb. 1995, p.1305.

76 Ibid.

77 Christian Pfeiffer, ‘Aufbewahrungsanstalt DDR’, Der Spiegel, 1 Dec. 1999; see also Berliner Morgenpost, 3 Dec. 1999; taz, 27 March 1999.

78 Deutcher Bundestag, 14. Wahlperiode, 99. Situng 13 April 2000, p.9226.

79 BMFSFJ, Ausbau der Kinderbetreuung. Kosten. Nutzen. Finanzierung (Berlin: BMFSFJ/Prognos, 2007), p.18.

80 Ostner, ‘Farewell to the Family’, p.236.

81 German Bundestag, 17. Wahlperiode 2010: Drucksache 17/714, Antwort der Bundesregierung auf Kleine Anfrage der SPD vom 15 Feb. 2010.

82 Ibid.

83 BMFSFJ, Gute Kinderbetreuung (Berlin: BMFSFJ, 2015).

84 Friedrich Ebert Foundation (ed.), On the Way to Gender Equality (Berlin: FES, 2016), p.24.

85 EU Directorate Justice, Report from the Commission on Barcelona Objectives (Brussels: European Commission, 2013).

86 Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, EUC press release on childcare, 3 June 2013, available from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-495_en.htm (accessed 11 October 2017).

87 Ostner et al., Family Policies in Germany.

88 Sarah Elise Wiliarty, The CDU and the Politics of Gender in Germany (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p.143.

89 Ute Gerhard, ‘1989 and the Crisis of Feminist Politics’, in K.H. Jarasch (ed.), United Germany. Debating Processes and Prospects (New York: Berghahn, 2013), p.146.

90 Galaktionow, ‘Kinderkrippen vor und nach dem Mauerfall’.

91 Helga A. Welsh, ‘Policy Transfer in the Unified Germany: From Imitation to Feedback Loops’, German Studies Review 33/3 (2010), pp.531–48.

92 Andrea Dernbach, ‘Die vergessenen Ostfrauen’, Tagesspiegel, 1 Dec. 2014.

93 For a detailed exploration of macro-social transformations, see Thomas Christiansen, ‘Bringing Process Back in the Longue Durée of European Integration’, Journal of European Integration 21/1 (1998), pp.99–121.

94 Jutta Allmendinger, Frauen auf dem Sprung: Wie junge Frauen heute leben wollen (München: Pantheon, 2009), ch.7, p.2.

95 Ibid.

96 Ingrid Miethe, ‘Zwischen biographischer Selbtvergewisserung und Wissenschaftsdiskurs: Die Entwicklung der Ost-West-Diskussion von (Frauen)bewegungen seit 1989’, in I. Miethe, C. Kajatin and J. Pohl (eds), Geschlechterkonstruktionen in Ost und West (Münster: lit Verlag 2004), p.68.