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Comparing the Post-War Germanies: Breadwinner Ideology and Women's Employment in the Divided Nation, 1948–1970*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Christine von Oertzen  and
Almut Rietzschel
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In 1989, when Germany became reunified after forty years of separation, no one could overlook the fact that East and West Germany differed greatly with regard to the position of women. The most striking difference of all seemed to lie in the rates of female employment: 91 per cent of all East German women under the age of 60 were counted as being employed, compared to only 55 per cent in West Germany.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 42 , supplement S5: The Rise and Decline of the Male Breadwinner Family? , September 1997 , pp. 175 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1999

References

1 For West Germany (1989) see Maier, Friederike, “Zwischen Arbeitsmarkt und Familie; Frauenarbeit in den alten Bundeslandern”, in Nickel, Hildegard-Maria and Helwig, Gisela (eds), Frauen in Deutschland, 1945–1992 (Bonn, 1993), pp. 257–279Google Scholar; please note that the East German figure of 91 per cent includes female students and apprentices, see Winkler, Gunnar (ed.), Frauenreport '90 (Berlin, 1990), p. 63Google Scholar. Virginia Penrose presents data that are more closely comparable with the West German figures and calculates on this basis that 80 per cent of East German women were employed in 1987: see Penrose, , “Vierzig Jahre SED-Frauenpolitik: Ziele, Strategien und Ergebnisse”, Frauenforschung: Informationsdienst des Forschungsinstituts Frau und Gesellschaft, 8, 4 (1990), pp. 60–77, esp. p. 66Google Scholar.

2 For West Germany: Kuhn, Annette, “Power and Powerlessness: Women after 1945, or the Continuity of the Ideology of Feminity”, German History, 7 (1989), pp. 35–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for East Germany: Kuhrig, Herta and Speigner, Wulfram (eds), Zur gesellscraflichen Stellung der Frau in der DDR (Leipzig, 1978)Google Scholar.

3 Creighton, Colin, “The Rise of the Male Breadwinner Family: A Reappraisal”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38 (1996), pp. 311–337CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 A comprehensive overview of the nineteenth-century debate is given by Creighton, in ibid. For German case studies, see Schmitt, Sabine, Der Arbeiterinnenschutz im Deutschen Kaiserreich. Zur Konstruktion der schutzbedUrftigen Arbeiterin (Stuttgart, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Canning, Kathleen, Languages of Labour and Gender. Female Factory Work in Germany, 1840–1914 (Ithaca, 1996)Google Scholar.

3 See Hausen, Karin, “Frauenerwebstatigigkeit und erwerbstatige Frauen. Anmerkungen zur historischen Fonchung”, in Budde, Gunilla (ed.), Frauen arbeiten. Uteibliche Erwerbstatigkeit in Ost- und West-deutschland nach 1945 (GOttingen, 1997), pp. 19–45Google Scholar.

6 A detailed account in a broader context will be given in the forthcoming publication by Heineman, Elizabeth D.: Standing Alone: Single Women from the “Third Reich” to the Post-war Germanies. For a general account of women in the post-war years, see her article: “The Hour of the Women: Memories of Germany's 'Crisis Years* and West German National Identity”, American Historical Review, 101 (1996), pp. 354–395CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 For a detailed account see: Pence, Katherine, “Labours of Consumption: Gendered Consumers in Post-War East and West German Reconstruction”, in Abrams, Lynn and Harvey, Elizabeth (eds), Gender Relations in German History: Power, Agency and Experience from the 16th to the 20th Century (London, 1996), pp. 211–238Google Scholar.

8 Weber, Daniela, “Zwischen FUrsarge und Erwetbsarbeit. Alleinstehende Leipzigerinnem nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg”, in Schotz, Susanne (ed.), Frauenalltag in Leipzig. Weibliche LebenszusammenhQnge im 19. und 20. Jahrundert (Weimar, 1997), pp. 295–318Google Scholar. For the restrictions, see “Anordnung zur Durchfiihrung der Verordnung tiber Sozialfiirsorge und des SMAD-Befehls Nr. 92/1946”, which became law on 1 October 1948, published in Zentralverordnungsblatt 1948, pp. 469–473 and “Verordnung tlber die Zahlung von Renten an Kriegsinvaliden und Kriegshinterbliebene vom 21.7.1948”, ibid. pp. 363–365. It went into operation on 1 November 1948.

9 ”Wir haben keine Verpflichtung gegentiber dem Nazistaat”, said the high-ranking Saxon Oberregieningsrat Hausdorf during a lecture to local social welfare commissions in July 1949, in Bundesarchiv, Abteilung Potsdam (hereafter BAP), DQ-2 3730.

10 A detailed picture of the decline of domestic industry is given in Sachsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (hereafter SachsHStA), LRS, MfAuS, No. 318.

11 The widows cried: “Sorgen Sie dafiir, daB die Doppelverdiener aus den Betrieben verschwinden. Ich brauche eine Arbeit. Ich brauche das Geld zum Lebensunterhalt. Die ‘Doppelverdiener’ geben es im freien Kaufhaus aus!”, in SiichsHStA, LRS, MfAuS, No. 453, p. 31.

12 The course of events is documented in SachsHStA, LRS, MfAuS, No. 453, pp. 38, 40 and 41.

13 See BAP, D Q-2, 2072. This file contains many documents on the campaign against “double income earners” and the efforts to crush it. The future Minister of Justice, Hilde Benjamin, initiated a review of policy in local unemployment offices when she was told that they refused to give jobs to married women. The Saxon policy was criticized in a letter sent on 17 January 1949 by the employment and welfare department of the central administration to the Saxon Minister of Labour.

14 See Moeller, Robert G., Protecting Motherhood. Women and the Family in the Politics of Post-war West Germany (Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford, 1993), esp. p. 319fGoogle Scholar.

15 Up to 1950, there was no central ministry of labour in West Germany. In so far as the allied military governments left anything for them to decide, it was the labour ministries of the “BundeslSnder” that governed all policies concerning the labour market. Especially in the British Occupation Zone, important decisions were taken by the “Manpower Division” of the military government. Within this, the British instituted a “Zentralamt ftlr Arbeit” (Central Labour Administration), a German authority exercising the executive powers of the manpower division for the whole zone. In the American and French zones, there were no comparable authorities, because labour policies were left much more to the Germans themselves. The labour ministries in all of the “BundeslSnder” represented the official authorities. Beside these, the labour administrations on the country (Landesarbeitsamter) and local (Arbeitsamter) level were responsible for finding jobs (Arbeitsvermittlung) and for bearing the costs of unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosenversicherung). The labour administrations were part of the autonomous German labour administration (Arbeitsverwaltung). Destroyed by the Nazis, the central institution of the labour administration (Bundesanstalt filr Arbeitsvermittlung und Arbeitslosenversicherung, BAVAV) was not restored until 1952. Until then, the labour administrations of the Bundeslander (Landesarbeitsamter) represented the highest authorities with regard to job finding and unemployment insurance.

16 Public welfare (oTfentliche Wohlfahrt) was organized at local level and widely financed by the municipal authorities. The cities and counties had to provide for the public welfare organizations (Wohlfahrtsverbande) which bore the costs of the public welfare system.

17 See footnote 15.

18 Decree of the Hesse Ministry of Labour to the Hesse labour administration, 10 October 1948, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden (hereafter HStAH), Dep. 940, No. 109.

19 Draeger, Kurt, “Die neue ArbeitslosenfUrsarge”, in Arbeitsblattfur die Brltische zone 2 (1948), pp. 41–48Google Scholar.

20 Up to 1949, however, West Germans had no legal sovereignty and thus had to cope with the problems of disabled breadwinners, who could hardly be integrated into the workforce, as well as with widows for whom it was impossible to “provide”.

21 Bundesversorgungsgesetz of 12 December 1950, Bundesgesetzblatt I 1950, pp. 791f.

22 Since East German statistics did not count married women as a separate category, this conclusion has to be reached by deduction. In 1955,3,395,600 women were in employment, equivalent to 55 per cent of all women of employable age. Although five years later only 60,800 more women had joined the workforce, the proportion of women in employment soared to 62 per cent. All figures presented in this paragraph are taken from Penrose, “Vierzig Jahre SED-Frauenpolitik”, p. 66.

23 In I960, the question of “who is the better mother?”, those staying at home or those going out to work, was fiercely debated in the SED newspaper Neues Deutschland; see Obertreis, Gesine, FamlUenpoHtik in derDDR 1945–1980 (Opladen, 1986), pp. 157fGoogle Scholar.

24 See the lecture on problems of socialist education given at the meeting of the women's committee of the FDGB executive on 31 May 1961 in Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv (hereafter BA-SAPMO), D Y 34/4238.

25 The off-hand remark “daB diese Arbeitskrafte uns mehr kosten als sie bringen” was made to a female union colleague during a conference of the FDGB executive: see memo written by Fridl Lewin on 7 April 1961, in BA-SAPMO, D Y 34/2146.

26 Letter of 6 January 1961 from the state council to the executive of the FDGB, in BASAPMO, DY 34/217/281/6389.

27 Section 3 (4) of the Gesetzbuch der Arbeit stated: “Die Betriebsleiter sollen die Moglichkeiten schaffen, daB auch die Frauen, die durch familiSre Pflichten voriibergehend verhindert sind, ganztSgig zu arbeiten, durch Teilbeschaftigung ihr Recht auf Arbeit wahmehmen konnen”, in Gesetzblatt 1961, Part I, p. 29.

28 ”Der Begriff Pflicht [werde] nicht so verwendet, daB man annehmen konne, die Frauen wtirden diese Arbeiten als ihre Pflicht betrachten, sondem als seien es ihrc Pflichtcn”: (undated) analysis of the state of scientific work on “The woman in the socialist society”, in BA-SAPMO, DY 34/4293.

29 Both surveys are documented in BA-SAPMO, D Y 30/IV 2/2.042/2. Included in the 30 per cent o f male factory workers are those who preferred not to answer this question. Although the opinion polls were conducted by an institute supervised and controlled by the SED (Institut fllr Meinungsforschung beim ZK der SED), they can be regarded as providing a true picture. The participants had to fill out a written questionnaire which could not be traced back to the individual participant.

30 For the women's associations see: Halbtagsarbeit – Teilzeitarbeit – far Frauen. Report of a nation-wide conference hosted by the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft tier Wahlerinnen” in Munich, 27 to 29 October 1955, Manuscript, Deutsches Zentralarchiv fiir soziale Fragen, ZI 13349; Amann, Olga, “Halbtagsarbeit flir Frauen”, in Bergholtz, Ruth (ed.), Die Wirtschafi braucht die Frau (Darmstadt, 1966), pp. 222–237Google Scholar; for the trade unions: “D a haben wir uns alle schrecklich geint […]”, German trade unions (DGB) (ed.), Geschichte, Dieder gewerkschaftUchen Frauenarbeit im Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund von 1945–1960 (Pfaffenweiler, 1993)Google Scholar.

31 Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 11 January 1956.

32 For these figures, see Willms, Angelika, “Grundziige der Entwicklung der Frauenarbeit von 1880–1980”, in MUller, W., Willms, H. and Hanell, J., Struhturwandcl der Frauenarbeit 1880–1980 (Frankfurt/M., 1983), p. 35Google Scholar.

33 Born, Claudia and Krueger, Helga (eds), Erwerbsverldufe von Ehepartnern und die Modernisierung weiblicher Lebensldufe (Weinheim, 1993)Google Scholar; Wildt, Michael, Am Beginn der Konsumgesellschaft. Mangelerfahrung, Lebenshaltung, Wohlstandhqffnung in Westdeutschland in den funfziger Jahren (Hamburg, 1994)Google Scholar.

34 See, for example, the page one banner headline of a famous daily yellow press newspaper, “Damit lockt die Industrie die Hausfrauen”: Bild-Zeitung, 16 September 1961.

35 In 1970, the proportion of married women workers in part-time jobs who had no children was 41 per cent. For all figures (except those referring to 1958) see: “Frauen mit Teilzeitarbeit. Ergebnisse des Mikrozensus”, Wirtschaft und Statistik (1971), pp. 416–418; “Die Erwerbstatigkeit der Mutter und die Betreuung der Kinder. Ergebnis der Mikrozensus-Befragung 1969”, ibid., pp. 68–88. For 1958 see: Gewerkschqftliche BeitrSge zurFrauenarbeit, Heft 3: Ergebnisse einer Befragung fiber die Belastung der erwerbstatigen Frauen durch Beruf, Haushalt und Familie (DUsseldorf, 1961), p. 25.

36 ”Sie sucht Zuverdienst”. Script for a radio magazine programme broadcast on 10 October 1960 by Rosemarie Winter, HStAH, Abt. 2050, No. 36.

37 ”[• • •] ganz allgemein und Uberall [sieht man] in der Berufsarbeit der Hausfrau, ob sie nun eine Existenzgrundlage oder Zusatzverdienst bildet, eine Erfahrungsbereicherung, eine Abwechlsung und Erganzung des eintonigen Einerlei, einen Gesprachsstoff, der AnlaB zum Mitreden gibt, ja sogar einen Geltungsfaktor […]”, ibid., p. 1.

38 The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU).

39 See Ministry of Finance memorandum on the taxation of spouses, 18 November 1955, Bundesarchiv Koblenz (hereafter BAK), B 126/6296, o.P.

40 Tax law (Steueranderungsgesetz), 18 July 1957, BGB1.1, p. 473.

41 Numerous petitions give vivid impressions of the situation in different branches of manufacturing and other industry, as well as in the newspaper world and the dairy industry. An impressive summary can be found in Petition of the German Federation of Industry and Commerce, Frankfurt, to the Ministry of Finance, 28 October 1958, BAK, B 126/19006.

42 All petitions quoted can be found in BAK, B 126/19006.

43 Advice to local councils concerning the new tax form (Lohnsteuerkarte F), 2 December 1960, BAK, B 126/19006, pp. 161–166.

44 Order No. 253 was published together with explanatory notes in Jahrbuch fur Arbeit und Sozialfursorge, Bd. 1 (Berlin, 1947), pp. 317–319. For a celebratory account written by East German historians, see Eilenstein, Marlies and Schotte, Ernst, “Die Durchsetzung des Prinzips *gleicher Lohn filr gleiche Arbeit' fUr Frauen in der damaligen Sowjetischen Besatzungzone”, Jahrbuch fur Wirtscliaftsgeschichte, 3 (1975), pp. 43–52Google Scholar; the critical analysis given in the present paper is based on von Oertzen, Christine and Rietzschel, Almut, “Neuer Wein in alten Schlauchen: Geschlechterpolitik und Frauenerwerbsarbeit im besetzten Deutschland zwischen Kriegsende und WShrungsreform”, Ariadne: Almanack des Archivs der deutschen Frauenbewegung, 27 (1975), pp. 28–35Google Scholar.

45 The SMAD's interpretation was published as a commentary on the Order in the Jahrbuch fur Arbeit und Sozialfursorge, see footnote 44.

46 Internal letter from Friedel Malter to the trade union's executive on 28 October 1946, enclosing an account written by a committee set up by the women's section of the ZK of the SED after a study tour of Saxony, in BA-SAPMO DY 34/A 281.

47 Account concerning the implementation of Order No. 253, written after a study tour of Thuringia in November 1946, in BA-SAPMO DY 34/A 281.

48 In German “weil sie keine besonderen Fahigkeiten erfordern”: for the complete refer-ence see footnote 45.

49 Drohsel, Petra, Die Lohndiskriminierung der Frauen. Eine Studie uber Lohn und Lohndiskriminierung von erwerbstatigen Frauen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1945–1984 (Marburg, 1986)Google Scholar.

50 See Eichfeld, Rosemarie, “Frauenerwerbstatigkeit, Qualification und Entlohnung in filnf Betrieben des Kreises Freiberg/Sachsen in den Jahren 1945 bis 1980”, in Hausen, Karin and Krell, Gertraude (eds), Frauenerwerbsarbeit: Forschitngen zu Geschichte und Gegemvart (Munich, 1993), pp. 167–185, esp. pp. 176–179 and 181–185Google Scholar.

51 Winkler, Frauenreport '90, p. 91.

52 Eichfeld, “Frauenerwerbstatigkeit”, p. 177.