Impact of German Unification on the Status of Women INC the Rural East and West

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Abstract
As in other post-socialist Eastern European societies, the transition from a socialist to a market economy in East Germany (former GDR) has produced high unemployment and widespread economic hardship for Eastern residents. Low levels of job-generating investments and the collapse of the infra-structure supporting dual-earner families in rural East Germany since unification have raised the unemployment rates among rural women to three times the level of their Western counterparts. In contrast to rural women in the West, East German women were socialized to expect life-long employment careers. Traditional West German values and state policies emphasizing women's full-time homemaker and mothering roles are now hindering East German women's integration in the post-socialist labor market. Thus, the consequences of the rapid social change accompanying unification are more pronounced for the status of Eastern than Western rural women. Both secondary and primary data suggest that rural women east and west of the former border differ significantly with respect to recent job-related changes, degree of optimism about the situation of women and Germany and the perceived impact of unification on their lives.

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