Equal positions – of a tendency to work and raven mothers

When East and Westfrauen met after the social upheaval of 1989/90, some irritation occurred. Some Eastern women who were confronted with acute social problems at that time were amazed at the energetic existence of gender language and the practice of some Westfeminists to withdraw into men -free women’s spaces. Some west women in turn doubted the emancipation experience of the Eastern women, but they could have learned a lot from the everyday life of women in real socialism – beyond Schönfärberi.

Feminism from above?

Especially with a view to the search for alternatives to capitalism, their experience had a relevance that should not be underestimated. At the same time, many Eastern women could have learned from their West German fellow campaigners how committed to alternative ways of life and work can be argued and protested on the street for rights. The experiences of the second women’s movement in the Federal Republic, which had launched children’s shops, women’s centers and collective work projects in the 70s and 80s, proved to be extremely valuable. However, with state funding, increasing institutionalization and the integration of many women’s projects into the labor market after 1989, a noticeable depoliticization.

The GDR was an industrial society that was very proletarized and in which a (forced) collective spirit was supposed to cover the suffering from the monotony of gainful employment. The “socialist intelligence” mostly behaved in accordance with the system that the prevailing ideology of Marxism-Leninism viewed the gender relationship as a “secondary contradiction” and part of the social question that was allegedly solved in the GDR. In the book “Unheard of East Frauen” published in 2019, a contemporary witness reflects this view as follows: “‘Equal rights from below’ was not necessary. We have not been suppressed by anyone, not even by the boss … the man is just a man. You shouldn’t see that so closely with equality. “

Women who believe that they could emancipate themselves solely by selling their workforce are deceived – in socialism and capitalist society.

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In other words, women in the GDR did not fight for their rights, equality was realized from above. The state policy of the GDR promoted women by means of numerous measures, for example through qualification offensives, a new family code, from 1972 then increased vacation entitlements for mothers, special donations for single mothers and much more. In real socialism, however, women were considered social, subcultural or politically “striking”, they felt the repressive state. So -called anti -social, that is, women who were “driven around” or classified as “work shy”, could be criminalized. Oppositional, those willing to leave, punks and bums were particularly subject to repression by state security and other state organs. Some of these women, who were different, landed in the Hoheneck women’s prison, others in youth works farms or in so -called gonorrhea castles, where thousands of women and girls from the age of twelve were recorded due to alleged venereal diseases. The last “Tripperburg” was closed in the 1980s.

Women who did not fit into the Normality grid of the GDR were simply not welcome by the state and society – and to be normal that meant to do work. This applies to around 90 percent of women, often in poorly paid areas. There were no social benefits for workers, social policy took place in the companies. The usual form of life was the small family: in 1989 the proportion of married people was over 70 percent, the first marriage age in men at 25.3 years and for women 23.2 years. The majority of women received the first child before the age of 25.

The youth phase was almost skipped by the early start of the family – often to finally get an apartment. After all, marriage usually did not serve as a supply institution for the GDR women; The divorce rate was correspondingly high. But women had a double burden, and in addition to gainful employment, had to do the majority of the work in the household and in children’s education. Patriarchal structures also stayed in state socialism, domestic violence remained a complete taboo subject.

Systemic parallels

After the so -called turn in 1989/90, a lot was criticized at the GDR in United Germany. The increased employment tendency of East German women is responsible for the high level of unemployment, it was said in the report of the Commission for Free States from Bavaria and Saxony from 1996/97. In 1997, the unemployment rate in East Germany was 19.1 percent – and there were a particularly large number of East women who had lost their wage labor. They were also pilloried as “raven mothers” because many women had given their children to the crèche. In 1999, the criminologist Christian Pfeiffer entered the debate with his “pot of pots” and triggered many East German resentment: he claimed a connection between the authoritarian education in the GDR and the more frequent migration -enemies of migration in young people.

In fact, the work of women and the early disposal of children to state care institutions is also desirable in today’s capitalism – as in the GDR, women are still used as workers today. The deregulation of the labor market, ever higher rental and living costs as well as the simple wish of many women to do gainful employment, has long since meant the end of western middle-class soda nourishing model. And most women from the working class were always forced in the capitalist west to do wage labor. The GDR provided professional work as the Means of emancipation. State politics aimed at steadily increasing the employment rates of women, but the working stress in the GDR was never as intense as in capitalism.

Women who believe that they could emancipate themselves solely by selling their workforce are deceived – in socialism as in today’s capitalist society. Rather, the focus must be on working conditions, as well as the content and meaning of the work must be questioned in order to develop a new concept of work. There is also a risk of old -age poverty because many mothers work part -time. The performance ideology penetrates into all subjects, and work fetishism drips from all pores of this society. Those who do not participate will be isolated, defamed and excluded. This also affects many single parents in the civil allowance system.

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Bad care situation

As in today’s FRG, the increase in the birth rate was also desirable in the GDR. For economic and ideological reasons, women should be employed mothers and entrust their children to the state care system. Therefore, there have been numerous social benefits since the early 1970s, also called “mommy policy”. In particular, however, crèche education, especially the weekly cribs and baby homes in the GDR, is criticized. In 1989, the degree of childcare was 80 percent of the children’s cribs in the GDR, and two percent in the FRG. As of March 1, 2024, the childcare rate in children under three years in childcare was 37.4 percent, in the East German federal states (including Berlin) it was 55.2 percent. Long childcare times in the day care centers in this country are becoming more and more common in children over three years.

However, the capitalist state does not manage to guarantee sufficient capacities for childcare in order to ensure the required length of stay as possible of all children. It is important not only to fight quantity, but above all to the quality of childcare: an acceptable childcare key, good qualifications and payment of the employees, the type of appreciation and much more. In United Germany, the gainful employment of women and the care of minor children has often prevailed in institutions, but the problems in the patriarchy have remained, especially the overload of many mothers.