Gender Policy in Berlin

Monday, November 30th

Today in class we discussed women’s issues and gender policy in Germany, specifically in the labor market. Women in East Germany were generally left much worse off after unification than other demographics within Germany’s female population. While most women were employed in the GDR, this trend has not carried into post-reunified Germany. While reunification resulted in high levels of unemployment across the board, women’s unemployment rates grew at a must faster rate than men’s rates. This is due in part to the lack of legislation to protect women’s jobs, as women’s issues were neglected by government during reunification. The parliament which administered the reunification phase was male dominated, and women’s rights and issues were not sufficiently represented within the political ranks. Germany’s corporatist style of government is dominated my traditionally male centered institutions such as labor unions. The corporatist consensus thus leaves women almost completely out of the dialogue, as was the case in the early 1990s as Germany’s reunification was taking form. The representation of women’s issues was further neglected by the media, while some publications like the TAZ provided sections focused on women’s issues, most periodicals tended to view women as important consumers but catered to women with lifestyle and family sections and did not provide an adequate forum for the discussion of women’s issues.

Some of the most progressive German policies in women’s issues in the past decade have been imposed from above, by means of the European Union. Though Germany has been amongst the most hesitant nations to comply with EU gender policies, when faced with the threat of an EU lawsuit, Germany has acquiesced and integrated these policies into its own legislation. That the EU must force Germany to comply with gender policies is evidence that Germany is one of the least progressive EU states on women’s issues.