After the Wall: Explaining the Status of Women in the Former GDR

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Abstract
The economic and political transformation of the German Democratic Republic rapidly became a process of unification with the Federal Republic of Germany, a process that has had a disproportionately negative effect on women. Particularly in the economic realm, women have suffered greater than average losses of jobs and of benefits, leaving many women excluded or marginalized from the labor force. These losses are traced to three interrelated but distinct sources: the legacy of discrimination that arose from the “mommy politics” of the GDR, the unequal division of labor of competitive capitalism generally, and the specific policy environment of the Federal Republic, which permits considerable gender and age discrimination. Ex-GDR women are not, however, passively enduring these losses. They are actively struggling as individuals to remain in the labor force, and organizing collectively to resist the policies and practices that disadvantage them.

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