Roles of Women and Men in the 20th Century (10/20/10 project)

The Military

Auxiliary Units

• Served in the auxiliary units in the navy (Kriegshelferinnen), air force (Luftnachrichtenhelferinnen) and army (Nachrichtenhelferin)
• Hundreds of women auxiliaries served for the SS in the concentration camp

Mata Hari 

• Dutch exotic dancer and prostitute
• Accused of being a double agent for France and Germany during WWI
• Was offered cash from a German consul for information the next time she visited France.  Hari passed on old, outdated information to the German officer.  Arrested in France and executed the same year by firing squad.

World War II

• Germany’s men that weren’t in war were afraid to intervene when Russians were raping German women for the fear of being shot. 
• The women of Berlin braved the artillery fire to forage for food and water in the streets. It was they who fed the family, cleaned what mess they could, looked after the sick, hid their young girls and took the brunt of Russian brutality. Some women in Berlin were now looking down on their men as the weaker sex and felt disappointed in them and even sorry for them.

Women

·         “For centuries, a woman's role in German society was summed up and circumscribed by the three "K" words: Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Küche (kitchen)” (4)

·         During the first world war women helped by entering into industrial style jobs while the men were off fighting in the war (1)

o   Approximately 700,000 had begun working by the end of the war

o   After WWI women won the right to vote (1919)

o   Some women kept their jobs after the male soldiers returned

·         During the Third Reich, women were meant to bear “Aryan” children and were taught to do so through aggressive propaganda. During WWII, Adolf Hitler wanted women to focus on the three Ks mentioned earlier and to not take place in war. (3)

·         In 1975, German women were sought out to join the military (2)

Men

·         All men age 18-23 have to attend a nine month training before going into war (2)

·         There are approximately 200,000 soldiers that are considered professional and 300,000 that are more civilian, but are on reserve and are able to become active at any given time

·         Many men were forced into war often through guilt and shame of their family and friends during the first two world wars

·         All major German military and political leaders in the 20th century were men

  

Politics

1919 - women recieved the right to vote

Nazi Germany - Hitler wanted women to just have children to grow Germany's population. It was thier duty to ensure the future of the German race. Women were even given medals for having large families

1949 - Basic law declared men and women equal

1977 - women gained rights to equal marriage

1980 - national office for women affairs set up in west germany to help work towards women quality

1988 - east germany, women made up almost 1/3 of Socialist unity party of germany (SED) while in west germany, women only made up abour 4.5% of the political party members.

1990 - Sabine Bergmann-Pohl was the president of the people's chamber of the GDR from april to october before the GDR ended

 

 



Domestic Life

Roles

• In 1919 women received the right to vote
• During World War II women took on some of the traditional jobs that the men left behind when they were fighting.
• When the World War II was over women tended the wounded, buried the dead, salvaged belongings, and began rebuilding war-torn Germany by clearing away the rubble
• In 1977 women got equal rights in marriage.

In West Germany                                                                              

• In the early 1980s women qualified for admission to universities in the same numbers as men.
• The Basic Law of 1949 declared that men and women were equal.
• But it was not until 1957 that the civil code was amended.

·         After World War II women became homemakers and mothers again and largely withdrew from employment outside the home.

In East Germany

·         Mid 1960s women accounted for half of all secondary school graduates.

·         By 1975-76 they were the majority (53%)

·         In the east, however, women remained in the workforce.

·         As early as 1950, marriage and family laws also had been rewritten to accommodate working mothers.

·         Abortion was legalized and funded by the state in the first trimester of pregnancy.

·          An extensive system of social supports, such as a highly developed day-care network for children, was also put in place to permit women to be both mothers and workers.

·         East Germany had to rely on women because of its declining population; the situation was made more critical by the fact that most of those fleeing to West Germany were men.

·         90% of the women worked outside of the home.

Business

Business in the German world is primarily made up of men. Women are not seen much in the business world. According to Wikipedia.com “Women are noticeably absent in the top tiers of German businesses. They only hold 9.2% of jobs in Germany's upper and middle management positions.” Although the Chancellor is a Woman it is still very difficult for woman to rise to management. There have been some issues in creating a law in Germany that would look at the quotas in companies so that woman have a chance to succeed. “ In 2001, the Justice Ministry established a governmental commission to develop a Corporate Governance Codex,.” quoted by Spiegel online. This is a document that was recently amended that could call on companies to increase the number of female managers. “Some companies in Germany such as Deutsche Telekom back in March and energy giant E., have recognized that incorporating more woman into their hierarchies is beneficial to their organization as a whole. Deutsche Telekom was the first DAX company to pledge to raise the percentage of women at mid to high level management to 30 percent.” Spiegel online. This does show us that there are some people who feel that woman can benefit their company, they are climbing the corporate ladder and there are ways that is making this happen either with the government help or by recognizing the good that both genders can play in a company. Stated by German information centre, “The business newspaper Handelsblatt was searching for tomorrow’s top women for Germany, the Financial Times Deutschland then proclaimed the “Age of Women”, and the magazine Capital even carried a cover story entitled “Der Chef trägt Prada” (The boss wears Prada)…. Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller has been managing the machine tool company Trumpf for a number of years now. Simone Bagel-Trah, a representative of the Henkel family, has been chair of the supervisory board of the Düsseldorf washing power and consumer goods company since last year and thus one of Germany’s most powerful women.” This just goes to show that woman can and are ready to make it to the top in the business world.

Simone Bagel-Trah

Education

During the early part of the twentieth century predominantly men went to school with intentions of going to university. By the mid-1960s women accounted for nearly half of all secondary school graduates with intentions on studying at institutes of higher learning in the GDR. Just fifteen years later they made up the majority with fifty-three percent. Supplementary payments and child care were provided to assist women in completing their studies. Women in west Germany did not qualify for admission into universities until the early 1980's. Therefore, west German women had more traditional familial relations, and did not have great ambitions for admission into particular academic departments, and for professional employment after graduation.

Sources

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa080601c.htm
http://www.warandgender.com/wgwomwwi.htm
http://www.mygermancity.com/german-military
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005205
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/g-wm.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_roles_in_the_World_Wars
http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/matahari.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issues_in_Germany#Gender_roles_and_demographics
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,702895,00.html
http://www.germanyandafrica.diplo.de/Vertretung/pretoria__dz/en/03__BD/New__women__managment.html

Pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mutterkreuz1940.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1990-0813-302,_Sabine_Bergmann-Pohl.jpg http://www.tridentmilitary.com/New-Photos14/393.jpg
http://tisores.net/imagenes/hari.jpg http://www.faz.net/s/RubF36E5361491F4CD9953863A0D5A760BC/Doc~E3635B2EB070E44DFB79CF2AD63692108~ATpl~Ecommon~SMed.html