German State Feminism since Annexation

      One could draw many parallels, superficial and meaningful, between the current state of the women's movements in Germany and the United States. Which is to say, both look to be in pretty dire straits if we look at the federal level. An examination of movement goals, politics, and political opportunities will reveal some meaningful differences, and show that by embracing bureaucratization, certain German feminist movements have been able to make great strides in regaining some of the protections lost when West Germany (hereafter the BRD) annexed East Germany (hereafter the DDR), and in placing women's rights firmly on the agenda at the municipal and state level. This analysis will be conducted through a political opportunity lens, and will show that bureaucratized “state feminism” is the viable future of the German women's movement.

      Barbara Epstein has thoroughly outlined a pessimistic view of the American women's movement which is far from inaccurate. She points out how despite feminist publicity of the unfair expectation that women perform household and childrearing labor regardless of whether they work outside the home or not, this “second shift” persists, along with increasingly successful attacks on reproductive freedom, lethargic action to improve protections against pay and hiring discrimination, and myriad other defeats.¹ On the same page she also highlights the role elite feminist theory has played in reducing issues in women's lives to the most abstract minutiae, segregated from any concept of relevance or applicability to women's lives or the activist process. She discusses the cultural successes the feminist movement has achieved, mostly spreading awareness of feminism as an idea which seems unlikely to die completely due to the breadth of its ostensible support, but has weakened politically since its heyday.² The parallels cannot be overstated- Epstein links the decline of the American feminist movement to the loss of the world's most prominent alternative to American hyper-capitalism: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The collapse of the DDR government was hastened by the same forces which brought Soviet Socialism down, and women's movements in both the United States and Germany have been hampered by the political discourse forbidding further alternatives. The German women's movement has adapted to this by bureaucratizing as has the American women's movement, but also has infiltrated both of Germany's mainstream leftist movements- the Greens (hereafter die Grünen) and the Left Party (hereafter Die Linke, or PDS when Professor Guenther was writing), which has borne notable results, particularly at the local level.

      Much of the framework for women's rights during the DDR's existence was laid decades beforehand- German feminists were extremely active in radical circles and in war resistance. Germany's greatest woman radical, Rosa Luxemburg was a crucial leader in the aftermath of the 1918 revolution until her martyrdom at the hands of the proto-Nazi Freikorps in 1920, and her writing led the new Communist Party of Germany (KPD) to embrace a detailed platform to undermine the influence of sexism on society, calling for public daycare, hiring protections and educational expansions which would have taken a meaningful chunk out of the “second shift” had they been implemented. Weimar Germany also saw the first organized forays of feminism into film, including the  first film with lesbian protagonists, “Mädchen in Uniform” (previously reviewed on this site) critiquing double standards of behavior and misogynist, natalist ideology. This free, critically thinking climate was one of the Nazi party's many targets, and the surviving Communist leadership seems to have felt a degree of solidarity with other Nazi victims- they would have little other reason to legalize homosexuality and conscientious objection to military service. Under the communist government of the DDR, women were able to make dramatic gains in the field of arts, especially in theatre with works like Franziska Linkerhand, and films like the Legend of Paul and Paula which concern themselves with the struggle of proletarian women in what was still very much a man's world, and music with Tamara Danz of Silly being the most prominent example of feminist rock musicians. Many male artists also devoted considerable attention to what are often considered “women's issues”- the Puhdys released songs about heroic single mothers, loathsome abusive fathers, the absurdity of some performative gender roles, and women's suffering in war zones, to name a few. The ultimate anthem of empowerment however, has to be Silly's “Mont Klamott”- a funky power ballad recounting the rebuilding of Berlin by its women- the “Trümmerfrauen” in the wake of World War II. This is important as evidence of what ideology the regime was willing to support, and as will be demonstrated later, the DDR was extremely supportive of women's personal and professional rights.

      Over the same period as American feminism's decline or abeyance, German politics have taken an increasingly hostile stance towards women's economic empowerment and reproductive freedom, actually starting considerably sooner in the early 70s as the Supreme Court struck down the Brandt government's modest reforms as unconstitutional attacks on religion. The 70s also marked the beginnings of modern globalization, producing a contest between progressive interest in state power over market abuses against the force of globalization making firms and their interests bulletproof. State power has shrunk just as women begin to access it, abetted by the conservative approach of putting some issues out of state reach.³

     Even aside from that, the fact that all German women now live under the BRD has been a major blow to their liberties. There were serious campaigns and mass mobilizations to legalize Abortion in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, bu none of them has yet achieved lasting success. The closest German women have yet come is in the early 70s, when the practice was legalized by the Willy Brandt government. After protests began, the supreme court struck the legalization down. Abortion has now been legalized for reasons of hardship, eugenics(!) health of the mother, or rape or incest cases. The solution was in 1995 to ban other abortions but only punish with mandatory de facto religious counseling⁴, and both public and private insurance is forbidden to cover abortion services. Finally, the dominance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has led to massive government subsidies to Catholic churches and organizations which conduct the shaming/counseling of women who seek abortions or obtain them without certain doctors' permission, even in heavily protestant or atheist areas. Bavarians have used their outsized influence through the CDU to ban doctors from earning more than 25% income from Abtreibung.⁵ While this is a gross violation of human rights, there have been positive developments arising on other fronts at the local level.

      A large part of the current activity of German Feminism is motivated by the desire to regain the rights women had under the Communist government, which were considerable. Among its highlights were a formal (though hard to enforce) ordinance mandating equal division of household labor, family policy that did not incentivize marriage, a full year of paid maternity leave, and guaranteed time off to care for sick children available to both parents, and an extra day off each month for women to deal with time sensitive errands and childrens' appointments.⁶ (This latter policy obviously contradicts the goal of equal division of domestic labor, but it sure helps more than having a culturally mandated second shift and no day off). Access to healthcare was also markedly improved in the DDR- birth control was fully available for free to single and married women alike, and abortion was also free and legal, if somewhat stigmatized,⁷ and the revolutionary Poliklinik model brought more people access to specialist medical providers than ever before. Culturally, single motherhood was not only tolerated but actively embraced by the state with several popular state-backed musicians both male and female producing songs glorifying their work and openly acknowledging their difficulties. Employment was more available than in the west, but glass ceilings were ubiquitous. Despite this, the DDR set a new world record in 1984 with 83% of women employed outside the home, compared with less than 40% in the BRD.⁸ The advantages of this cannot be overstated- employed women are more valued in a materialist culture, and also have the means to free themselves from abusive situations. Crucially, 90% of DDR children under 3 were cared for in state day facilities, compared to 3% of BRD children⁹. All of this would be destroyed overnight by the western government, whose lack of a minimum wage law until 2014 meant that it was not unheard of for women to be hired in the service sector for only 1 euro per hour¹⁰.

     The opportunity to act came about through great backlash among eastern women and some men at the loss of women's rights under the western regime. Organization efforts were primarily localized, and this arena provided the best opportunities following the legal mandate for each political unit of 10,000 or ore citizens to appoint a high level official as “Bearer of the Equality Objective” (hereafter Die Gleichstellungsbeauftragte, or GB). Nascent women's movements sought to cooperate with and in some cases supply this new leadership of state activism.¹¹ Gleichstellungsbeauftragten are generally tasked with ensuring municipal compliance with gender equality legislation, and for gender mainstreaming city policy- making sure it doesn't have a disparate negative effect on vulnerable populations as well as disseminating information on inequality as well as providing governmental advice and counseling to citizens seeking redress and direction.¹² This opportunity allowed for symbiotic institutionalization- many cities' women's movements became dependent on the political power of these new officials, who themselves relied on information, policy drafts, and activist support from these organizations to remain relevant, ensuring a steady stream of state funding for things like women-targeted job training and domestic violence shelters.¹³ Particularly in Rostock, women's movements' partnering with the local Gleichstellungsbeauftragte has contributed greatly to the resurgence of daycare co-ops, and was crucial in getting city funding for these feminist undertakings.¹⁴

     The leading organization in women's rights in northeastern Germany (at least as of 2005) was the Landes-Frauenrat Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (State Women's Council of West Pomerania), based in Rostock, seeking women's equality in politics, women's political participation, solidarity among women, consolidation of women's interests, improving the representation of women in media, business and politics, reducing long-term unemployment among women, and restoration of support for single mothers. They primarily use petitions and letter writing campaigns to engage at the legislative level rather than street protests, but with strong GB offices in both Rostock and the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, they've accomplished much, especially in the arena of funding for women's shelters and job training.

      We can see examples of successful bureaucratization in Germany, helped by a receptive political climate and elites in the east. The American feminist movement should look to our German sisters for inspiration of how to get back up after the most savage of punches, and look to work at municipal levels to gain access to the health care, childminding, and employment rights Washington would withhold from us.

Sources

Epstein, Barbara. Decline of the Women's Movement, the. From the Social movements Reader, 2^nd edition. Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James, eds. Wiley-Blackwell publishing, West Sussex, UK: 2009

Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005.

McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003.

1Epstein, Barbara. Decline of the Women's Movement, the. From the Social movements Reader, 2^nd edition. Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James, eds. Wiley-Blackwell publishing, West Sussex, UK: 2009., p. 376.

2Epstein, Barbara. Decline of the Women's Movement, the. From the Social movements Reader, 2^nd edition. Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James, eds. Wiley-Blackwell publishing, West Sussex, UK: 2009.P. 379.

3McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003. p. 231.

4McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003. , p. 232.

5McCarthy, John D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. Cultural Continuity and Structural Change. From Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen and Rucht, Dieter eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2003. p. 235.

6Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. p. 27

7Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. p. 27.

8Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 30.

9Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. P. 30.

10Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 74.

11Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 37

12Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 38

13Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005., p. 40.

14Günther, Katja. Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA: 2005. P. 75.