Women in the 20th Century in Germany - Essay Example

Women in the 20th Century in Germany Introduction The discussion below revolves around women in the 20th century in Germany. For centuries, the roles and duties of women in the German society was summed up and limited by the three "K" words. These included: Kinder, Kirche, besides Küche. These basically meant children, church and kitchen in that order. Throughout the twentieth century, however, women have gradually won victories in their quest for equal rights. The essay will describe and elaborate the various roles of women in the patriarchal German empire besides their difficulties in trying to cope up with their counterparts. It elaborates the various steps women took and their new role they adopted throughout the empire. Just to mention a few, in 1919 the women got the right to vote; such was of great significance to women liberation. Discussion Intense changes also were fashioned by the World War II. For the duration of the war, women assumed positions conventionally held by men. Furthermore, subsequent to the World war, the so-called Trümmerfrauen tended the injured, buried the deceased, recovered possessions. Besides, the women began the onerous task of transformation of war-ravaged Germany by basically clearing away the wreckage1. Moreover, the Basic Law of the year 1949 acknowledged that both women and men were the same in the Western Germany, but then it was not until the year 19572. In that year that civil code got amendment to rather fit in with such statement. Evidently, even during the early 1950s, these marginalized members of the society could be fired from the public service when they wed3. However, following the World War II, in spite of the severe scarcity of fresh men that made marriage incredible for most of the women, customary marriage once again suited people’s epitome. Employment and social welfare programs continued to be based on the male main source of income model. West Germany turned to lots of emigrants or immigrants. Those comprised big sums of GDR refugees. All those were aimed at satisfying its growing economys labor necessities. Ones again Women became makers of the homes and mothers. The marginalized groups again chiefly pulled out from work outside the home. However, the women who were in the east retained their employment opportunities and positions. All these were contribution of the Soviet Style system. It required womens contribution in the economy, and the regime fulfilled that vital objective by starting up learning and vocational prospects to women that were once an endangered species4. Furthermore, as early as the year 1950, marital and domestic laws also had been modified to accommodate and incorporate the employed mothers. On the other hand, abortion was allowed and subsidized by the government in the first trimester of gestation period5. A general system of community supports, such as a greatly established day-care system for children, was also put in place to authorize the women to be both mothers and employees. Liberated "from above" for economic and conceptual aims, these women in the east enrolled in institutions of higher learning and most of the labor forces in record figures although still keeping the household. However, East Germany had to depend on women for of its decreasing population; the state was made direr by the fact that most of those absconding to West Germany were mostly men6. For these advances, approximately 90 percent women in the East German toiled outside the home. Moreover, these made up roughly half the membership in the two furthermost vital mass groups of the earlier GDR, the Free German Trade Union Federation, as well as the Free German Youth. Nonetheless, in the year 1988 to some extent more than one-third of the affiliation of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany comprised of women. Conversely, merely about 4.4 percent of women of the West German women had membership of political parties7. In spite of all these benefits, discrimination still was an issue in Germany. Women never got equal remuneration like men. Surprisingly, a woman would be remunerated 65-78% of a man’s salary. Nevertheless, it was similarly hard for them to get high positions at work because those positions were generally assumed to be for men. On the other hand, later in the 20th century, women begun to get high positions in their working areas.. However, the ones who made it to such positions were very few. One more problem was how some women in Eastern Germany were forced to neuter themselves to upsurge their employment projections after several of them lost their works or became part time workers due to unification trouble8. Even though ample obstacles to equality of the sexes in Germany persist as a result of a obstinately male-controlled family structure and work environment, some of the women have succeeded to gain isolated high-profile triumphs. Nevertheless, a discrete national office for womens matters was formed in West Germany in the year 1980; in addition related agencies have been created in most Länder in the great united Germany. Furthermore, since the mid-1980s, offices accountable for functioning toward womens fairness and equality have been active, foremost in West Germany and subsequent to confederacy in the new Länder. Furthermore, the Equality Offices have as one of their responsibilities confirming that women get a more just share of most of the public sector positions. Nearly all sections of eastern German society faced incredible trouble in the unification process; however, women suffered the more than their counterparts. Some reports specified that two-thirds of employed women in the new Länder were jobless, and several more were turned into part-time employees as a consequence of denationalization, rationalizing of firms, and eradication of support amenities like the day-care and after-school centers. Nonetheless, to recover their projections for work, a number of women in eastern Germany allegedly were resorting to sterilization9. Such was of great effect of great effect to the economy of the state. It was one of the contributing factors to the steep drop in births from twelve per every one thousand in the year 1989 to 5.3 per 1,000 in the year 1993. On the other hand, certain women have prospered in getting positions of power. As a matter of example, one of the best efficacious women in German government in the 1990s is Rita Süssmuth, she managed to be the president of the Bundestag. Moreover, in the sector of business, Birgit Breuel assumed the control and power following the murder of Detlev Rohwedder in the year 1991 of the agency, the influential agency charged with denationalizing and ensuring privatization of the former East German economy10. Additional powerful and noticeable German women in the mid-1990s were like: the manager Public opinion institute o Allensbach; Elizabeth Noelle, and Marion von Dönhoff who became the coeditor of Die Zeit. Hitherto in spite of such progress, women still had the responsibility to go out and achieve. A time had come that the women were to scramble for the limited opportunities with their men. German needed skills and women were out to gain the skills. They belied that the only equalizer was education and they went out to learn. Evidently, among the matters that verified the dissimilarities between females of the old and new Länder, one of the utmost belligerent was abortion.it brought more problems to the women as well to the economy of the nation. Some of the women even succumbed to death due to such vice and ended up losing three things at a go11. These were the job, the life of the unborn as well as their lives. It was too bad though condition might have forced then to do so. Reportedly, in year 1991 roughly one hundred and twenty five thousand women aborted. Of the entire figure indicates that the one hundred and twenty five thousand women represented the number of lives lost in a bid to get job opportunities12. The situation was very disastrous to the economy. The law on abortion continued to work in force in both the Western and the eastern Germany even after the unification. The legislation that appeared pleasing to the women to combat their counterparts was killing more of the females in the coming generations besides the males. However, before late the law was nullified. Methodology The research made use of use qualitative techniques of analyzing the data found in both primary and secondary sources. Data gathering was based on equally primary sources like interviews that are formless and secondary sources which encompass attaining material from sources that are freely obtainable like books, magazines, periodicals and the internet. Conclusion In conclusion, the aims at exemplifying how the German women rose from ages of traditional forms of patriarchal lives and marriages to that of gender egalitarianism, equality and equity. Germany is a country that is considered a potent and industrialized nation. These women faced discrimination against their counterparts in terms of disparities in remunerations, in attaining high positions at work. However, competing men had a lot of challenges women faced very challenges that barred them from getting responsibilities like men. They had to strain due to their biological make up as well as the tradition that put man above women. Changing the tradition is not an easy task. Some were going through dangerous sacrifices like sterilization and abortion so as to compete favorable with men in their employment endeavors. Bibliography After every war: twentieth-century women poets. 2004. New jersey: Princeton university press. Albanese, Patrizia. 2006. Mothers of the nation: women, families, and nationalism in twentieth-century Europe. Toronto [u.a.]: Univ. of Toronto Press. Grosenick, Uta. 2001. Women artists: in the 20th and 21st century. Köln [etc.]: Taschen. Herrmann, Elizabeth Rütschi, and Edna Huttenmaier Spitz. 2014. German women writers of the twentieth century. Oxford: Pergamon Press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=1875018. Kolinsky, Eva. 1995. Women in 20th-century Germany: a reader. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/toc.html https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/What_makes_the_Holocaust_unique.html https://www.bundestag.de/blob/189788/91dd98a79da3cb774f3a8db3a708694f/german_constitutions-data.pdf http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm http://womenroleinsociety.blogspot.ca/2010/06/status-of-women-in-germany.html http://countrystudies.us/germany/91.htm Read More