Women's Studies lnt. Quart., Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 435452, 1981. 0148~685/8t/040435-18502.00/0 Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Ltd.

S O C I A L I S T E M A N C I P A T I O N : T H E W O M E N ' S M O V E M E N T I N

T H E G E R M A N D E M O C R A T I C R E P U B L I C

BARBARA EINHORN

91 Hanover St., Brighton, Sussex BN2 2SS, U.K.

Synopsis---The paper attempts to evaluate the role of the DFD (Women's Democratic League of Germany--the official and only women's organization in the G.D.R.) within the general context of the situation of women in the G.D.R.

It therefore discusses the DFD's historical contribution to legislation and social measures in favour of women, the theoretical framework in which this occurred, and the somewhat paradoxical nature of the DFD's current role.

Expanding these issues, the paper deals with the historical legacy of Marxist theory on the emancipation of women, and the isolation from Western feminist theory in which the G.D.R. in general, and the DFD in particular operate.

Contradictions in the present situation of women in the G.D.R. are discussed as well as the tremendous gains in status and consciousness already made by women on the basis of the economic, social and legal provisions in their favour.

Some causes for these contradictions are postulated. Examples of their expression through the media and in recent literature are given to exemplify both the extent of and the limits to the current discussion of feminist issues in the G.D.R.

SOCIALIST EMANCIPATION VS FEMINISM: THE FRAME OF REFERENCE

'Of course I could carry on like some feminists, letting fly like wild things just because they're allowed to swear at their husbands for not doing the washing-up for them or changing the kids' shitty nappies. They're running amok, they'll never come to any understanding with their husbands. You have to learn to notice the little changes in the other person, and above all to change yourself. Without love, all these attempts at emancipation are just a pain. What 's the use of women liberating themselves against their partner? I see a lot which is destruct ive. . . I believe you can only go from compromise to compromise . . . I just heard on the telly which qualities are supposedly typical of us women, according to Western scientists: passivity, dependence, conformism, timidity, nervousness, narcissism, obedience. I must be a man then, only without a prick. Or else I 'm living in a different world, one in which you're allowed to develop other qualities' (Rosi, 32 year old secretary in the G.D.R., quoted in Wander, 1977).

The contradictory attitude towards feminism implicit in this excerpt from Guten Morgen, Du Schone (Good Morning, You Beautiful One) a volume of taped protocols by G.D.R. women of varying ages (Wander, 1977) occupations and family status is indicative of contradictions operating in the actual situation of women in the G.D.R. Rosi appears to condemn as extremist feminist demands for change in the domestic division of labour; her plea for compromise sounds like support for the status quo. This contrasts not only with her feeling of strength in reaction to the television programme, but also with an earlier remark about how depressing and discouraging it is when one's partner's conservatism inhibits change in areas

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one finds unacceptable. There is a contradiction here between her rejection of what she regards as extremist feminism from a position of strength on the one hand and on the other the actual fetters of her own situation which she feels powerless to change.

This contradiction arises out of, indeed is inherent in the very situation of women in the G.D.R., a situation which is in many ways admirable. As Rosi's reaction to Western stereotyping indirectly implies, the economic, social and legal situation of women in the G.D.R. has created for them possibilities for the development of personality and self- expression which are structurally negated for women in the West, both by the theoretical definitions and by the power structure of gender relations within which they are confined.

This paper will discuss the nature of the contradictions operative in the situation of women in the G.D.R. today and the role of the DFD, the Women's Democratic League of Germany (the official and only women's organization) in relation to the achievements as well as to outstanding problems.

The achievements of the G.D.R. in the field of women's rights mean that independence, forthrightness, initiative, career ambition and confidence in one's rights as an equal member of society are taken for granted for women as well as for men. The contradictions originate in the fact that these gains have been made largely in the field of paid labour. The level of women's qualifications has been raised immeasurably, equal pay for equal work has been implemented since 1946, and women have made substantial in-roads into many formerly male-dominated professions and sectors of the economy. However, the converse is not true: there has been no marked shift of men into traditionally female occupations. Moreover, as Rosi's views above imply (and as will be exemplified in a subsequent section of this paper) there is very little awareness in the G.D.R. of gender-defined behaviour patterns as they affect social relations, particularly at the level of personal/domestic life. The whole concept that the personal is political, which has been such an important revelation within western feminism with wider revolutionizing implications, is virtually unknown in the G.D.R. and is anathema to the prevailing ideological framework. This explains why what is known about Western feminism tends to be misinterpreted or maligned.

The situation emerging now exemplifies Hilda Scott's observation (Scott, 1978) that emancipation in the countries of socialism as we know it has been seen, on the whole, as something given to women without taking anything away from men. To put it another way, men never envisaged that they would have to change themselves rather than the laws in order to enable women to become emancipated.

There are several possible explanations for this lack of foresight. One is the interpretation put forward by the eminent and internationally known G.D.R. author Christa Wolf in her interpretative essay to Wander's protocols (Wolf, 1978). She contends that it is only at a certain level of development; when the material basis for equality has been laid, that it becomes possible to look ahead to the real issues of social relations. Encouraging women to participate in social labour and in public life (both in large part to the credit of the DFD, as will be discussed in the next section) has endowed them with a new self confidence, a sense of self which enables them to raise new questions relating, amongst other things, to the insidious persistence of gender-defined behaviour within personal relationsh!ps. Another explanation is that the limitations in the concept of emancipation emanate directly from the G.D.R.'s espousal of classical Marxist theory on the situation of women as formulated by Marx, Engels, Bebel, Zetkin and Lenin. This legacy at once provides stability and the legitimacy of historical continuity to the G.D.R.'s endeavours in favour of women, and yet at the same time explains the exclusion from the parameters of official discourse of whole areas of concern to

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 437

women, for example, relating to personal autonomy and sexuality (Kollontai is not regarded as an integral link in the historical chain).

What is not on the agenda, therefore, is any discussion or evaluation of the theoretical contribution which western feminism may have to make, both because of the closures operating in the theoretical framework opted for by the G.D.R. and because of what is seen as the reformist nature of western feminism. The latter's highlighting of issues surrounding sexuality and self-awareness is seen as a 'diversionary tactic' from the main goal of socialist revolution. In focusing on the sensationalist media view of western feminist concerns to the exclusion of a wider reading of western feminist literature, an academic volume on the situation of women in the G.D.R. (Kuhrig and Speigner, eds., 1978) over-simplifies and maligns the western movement. Even while conceding the heterogeneous composition and diverse demands of the women's movement in the West, it simultaneously condemns the 'crass' actions of 'bra-burning extremists'. The analysis posited by Kuhrig and Speigner suggests that what they term 'neo-feminism' in the West mistakenly substitutes gender warfare for the class struggle and thus concentrates on the need for ideological change rather than on the abolition of capitalist production--and social--relations. Kuhrig and Speigner conclude from this that the women's movement is not merely tolerated by the imperialist system as not constituting a threat to it, but that, worse, it 'ultimately stabilizes the capitalist social system'.

This analysis, while it displays some internal logic, is based on an over-simplification and trivialization of the strands within the western women's movement. The volume in which it appears includes no reference to primary sources on western feminism and only a one-line reference to two 'interesting and illuminating' secondary studies published in West Germany. It is true that western feminist texts are not readily available to the public at large so that, for example, the West German feminist Alice Schwarzer's book (1975) in which women speak for themselves was circulating amongst academics in the G.D.R. in a brown paper wrapper. Nevertheless, the lack of a measured discussion of western feminist writing in this authoritative volume, researched and written by a group within the Academy of Sciences of the G.D.R. whose area of concern is 'women in socialist society', can not seriously be attributed to lack of access to the literature. Rather it must be seen as a conscious exclusion, emphasizing the limits set in the G.D.R. on discussion of issues affecting women.

The only analysis which, in addition to setting the achievements of the G.D.R. against the 'bigotry' of 'man-hating late bourgeois blue-stockings', covers a broader spectrum of issues including life style in a critical manner, is that by the G.D.R. author Annemarie Auer (1975) better known as a literary critic. Her essay, with its historical sweep beginning with pre- history, the early Egyptians and the Greeks rather than with Marx, first appeared in a volume of otherwise fictional treatments of the theme of sex change, and was subsequently reprinted in a volume of the author's collected literary essays (Auer, 1977). Consequently, it can scarcely be assumed to have reached the mass of G.D.R. women.

Indeed the fate of the volume Blitz aus heiterm Himmel (A Bolt from the Blue; Anderson, ed., 1975) in which Auer's piece originally appeared further underlines the fact of the restricted audience/readership for, and thus limited dissemination of, some broader feminist issues. In its original conception, the Blitz volume was to contain an equal number of stories by male and female writers. Each author was asked to fictionalize the experience of waking up one fine morning to find oneself transformed not, like Kafka's Gregor Samsa (in The Metamorphosis) into a fear-inspiring insect-like thing, but into the opposite sex. For some of the male authors who were approached this prospect was apparently no less horrific, so that

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they felt unable to countenance such a possibility, even in fiction. Then there were the publishers. Having initially welcomed the idea, it seems there were difficulties on presentation of the completed manuscript which delayed publication for several years. The questioning of hierarchical male social structures and of gender-based role differentiation implied in many of the stories appear to have been more than the publishers were prepared to take. It was only after court proceedings for breach of contract were initiated against them with the backing of the official writers' union of the G.D.R., that the volume eventually appeared. Even then, it had an edition of only 8000, which represents a limited edition in the context of the mass readership existing in the G.D.R. literary scene. Subsequently, the publishers have resisted all demands for a second edition.

This anecdote provides a comment on the fact that some of the implications of women's emancipation appear to threaten the still largely male-dominated pinnacles of the hierarchical career structuresJn the G.D.R. Another example may be observed in the fate of the interpretative essay by Christa Wolf mentioned above (Wolf, 1978). Her reflections on Maxie Wander's collection of taped interviews (Wander, 1977) appeared originally in Neue Deutsche L iteratur (New German Literature), one of three journals devoted to literature and criticism in the G.D.R.i.e. a journal without mass appeal.

Wolf feels that women in the G.D.R., are in a position, on the basis of the tremendous gains in status and self-confidence they have made through their legally guaranteed economic and social equality, to pose new questions, to widen the horizon of their aspirations, encompassing social relations in their entirety. They are asking, maintains Wolf, not: 'What do we have?' but 'Who are we?' in a search for identity and meaning within the framework of a socialist future. With a newly acquired consciousness based on cooperation rather than on domination, these women are questioning the inherited hierarchical structures and 'rational' modes of behaviour which have so crippled and emotionally debilitated men. The vision implied in these women's aspirations as interpreted by Wolf, is that of a truly humane society whose norms are based not on expediency, pragmatism and rationality, but on sympathy, self respect, trust and friendliness--a society of fulfilled and liberated individuals.

In the West German edition of Wander's book, a revised version of Wolfs essay is included as an introduction. In the G.D.R., despite the fact that the book has had many reprintings as a result of its overwhelming success and dynamic effect on discussions of the frustrations and aspirations of women, the Wolf essay with its positive speculation on possible future social relations has remained confined to the minority readership of the literary journal in which it appeared.

The examples cited above may serve as illustrations of the practice arising out of the narrowed theoretical framework within which equality for women is seen in the G.D.R. The confines of this framework are that emancipation is attained through participation in social production, with childcare and domestic labour being largely socialized in order to facilitate such participation. The concentration on the socialization of domestic labour as an aid to emancipation has had the effect of excluding the domestic scene and the division of domestic labour from official discussion.

The sense of historical continuity and identity furnished by the assumption of the classical theory in toto helps to explain why this theory has not, as yet, been questioned or expanded and why, as a consequence, the contribution of, and the debates within, Western feminist theory have been excluded from ideological debate in the G.D.R. A further illustration of this limitation of the debate is provided by Fiir Dich (For You), the mass weekly and organ of the DFD which, whilst it does attempt to grapple with problematic aspects of emancipation in

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 439

the G.D.R., does not carry reports on the Western women ' s movement , with the exception of peace and liberation movements , mainly in Third Wor ld countries.

O n the subject of access to and dissemination of feminist ideas, it is no tewor thy that the flow of informat ion and influence with regard to women ' s issues operates between the two Germanies in precisely the opposi te direction to most assumed influence, namely from East to West. The practice of the G.D.R. has had a far greater influence on women ' s struggles in West G e r m a n y than has the latter's theory on the thinking of women in the G.D.R. The partially successful campaigns in West G e r m a n y to reform para. 218 (restricting access to legal abort ion), and to in t roduce extended paid materni ty leave on the model of the G.D.R. 's so-called 'baby year ' are cases in point. 1

THE WOMEN'S DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE OF GERMANY (DFD): AIMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The economic, legal and social status of women in the G.D.R. as workers, as mothers, as individuals is undeniably far in advance of that enjoyed by their sisters in West Ge rmany and m a n y other Western capitalist countries and even in the other countries of 'socialism as it actually exists'. The credit for this achievement must go in par t at least to the efforts of the D F D , the official (and only) women ' s organizat ion in the G.D.R. F r o m its inception in 1947, the D F D saw itself as the inheri tor and perpet ra tor of the Marxist tradit ion on the quest ion of women, but with an impor tan t distinction. Wherea~ their comrades in the Soviet Un ion followed Stalin's mechanistic interpretat ion of history, whereby the 'woman question' , the double exploitation of women under capitalism analysed by Marx, Engels and Bebel would automat ical ly be resolved in the wake of the over throw of capitalist proper ty relations, the G e r m a n Communis t s and Social Democra t s returning from exile in the Soviet Union at the end of the Second Wor ld W a r differentiated themselves from this view. They felt that social relations and att i tudes did not change spontaneously, but required conscious direction and ideological guidance. In this they based themselves on Lenin rather than on Stalin. In consequence, the G.D.R. founded the D F D , whereas several other Eastern European socialist countries considered it unnecessary to have an organizat ion independent of the Communi s t Pa r ty concerned with women ' s issues) As early as Oc tober 1945, before the format ion in 1946 of the SE D (Socialist Uni ty Party, the ruling par ty in the G.D.R.), anti- fascist women ' s committees were set up to involve women in the laborious task of sorting th rough and clearing the rubble left by the Nazi-wreaked devastat ion of Germany. These

1 After a long campaign involving many setbacks as a result of opposition from the conservative Christian Democrats as well as the Catholic church in West Germany, limited reform of para. 218 was achieved in 1976, four years after the G.D.R.'s Abortion Act was promulgated. The West German law, as it now stands, allows abortion on four grounds only: medical (danger to the woman's life), eugenic (the baby would be abnormal), ethical (the pregnancy is the result of rape) and emergency (a vague catch-all which allows of but does not state social reasons). In the first two cases, abortion is legal within the first 22 weeks, but in the latter two only within the first 12. This time limit is a serious inhibitor in a context where an abortion can not be decided upon by the woman in her own responsibility, as is the case in the G.D.R., but only after consultation with an approved counsellor and a doctor other than the one who performs the abortion. These consultations can cause serious delay.

On maternity leave, a new law of July 1979 allows women in West Germany to take four months' leave at a fixed rate of pay (DM750 per month) in addition to 14 weeks' maternity leave, making a total of 7½ months. During this time, her job must be held open for her. This compares with the G.D.R.'s 6-12 months entitlement on full pay which is detailed below.

2 On the need for ideological work to change gender-based attitudes and behaviour, using Lenin as the reference point, see Kuhrig and Speigner, 1978; pp. 30~0. On the differences of opinion amongst socialist countries as to the need for and relevance of a women's organization, see ibid, esp. pp. 33-34.

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committees saw their task not merely in mobilizing women's labour power, but as beginning, through this, the political and cultural education and reorientation of women, encouraging them to participate in the democratic reconstruction of Germany and to bring up their children 'in a democratic spirit'. It was out of these committees that the DFD grew, being formed in March, 1947.

From the outset, the DFD saw its task as a two-fold one: mobilizing and educating women in a political sense, and encouraging them to break out of their domestic fetters (to which Nazi ideology had confined them) and to enter social production. The latter aim was never conceived of purely in terms of expediency, motivated by the acute shortage of male labour power following the decimation of the male population in the Second World War. Rather, it was always posed in the context in which Marx, Engels, Bebel, Zetkin, Lenin had conceived it. Lenin, for example, said on this subject: 'to effect her complete emancipation and to make her the equal of man it is necessary for the national economy to be socialized and for women to participate in common productive labour' (Kuhrig, 1973; p. 16). Thus the integration of women into social production was always viewed as the most essential precondition for emancipation, not only in terms of the economic independence from men which they would thereby acquire, but also in terms of social labour being the crucial ingredient in the development of individual consciousness and the unfolding of personal potential. Operating within this conceptual framework, the DFD was later responsible for initiating and drafting all legislation on behalf of women in the G.D.R. The Protection of Mother and Child and the Rights of Women Act, an all-embracing piece of legislation which laid the basis for all subsequent laws regarding women, was promulgated as early as 1950. In this, it was in advance of all relevant UN conventions with the exception of the Convention of March 1950 prohibiting slavery and prostitution. The 1950 G.D.R. Act provided for the creation of state childcare facilities, maternity grants and leave, for revisions in marriage and family law, for measures designed to help women improve their level of qualification and gain access to previously male-dominated branches of production. Similarly, the 1946 decree of the Soviet military administration giving women equal rights in all spheres and equal pay for equal work predates the relevant UN Convention (no. 100) by five years. 3

The DFD is enabled to play such an influential role in legislating on behalf of women and in policing measures in their favour in part by virtue of its fixed quota of seats in the Volkskammer, the G.D.R. parliament, where it enjoys the same status as a political party. With its 35 seats, it accounts for a large proportion of the 168 seats held by women and 7 per cent of the total 500 seats in the Volkskammer. In a sense, however, these very figures point to the curiously anachronistic position of the DFD today.

The position arises from the fact that, due largely to its own efforts, the DFD now represents only a marginal constituency. While 87 per cent of all women in the G.D.R. now work outside the home, the DFD has continued to gear its activities towards what now constitute minority groupings: full-time housewives, women temporarily out of the workforce (for example, on maternity leave), tradeswomen and craftswomen or the wives of men in this private sector, and Christian women. The aims of the DFD have remained

a Fortheprovisionsofthe 1950Act, seeAllendorf, 1978;p. 77and Kuhrigand Speigner, 1978;pp. 50-51,60. For details of all subsequent legislation, which has superseded the 1950 Act, and also for extract from documents of the 9th Congresses of the SED and the FDGB in 1976 and 1977, and from documents of the DFD, see Allendorf 1978; pp. 116-152.

For a comparison of G.D.R. laws with the relevant UN Conventions, see Kuhrig, 1973; pp. 39ff. For details of the 1946 Decree of the Soviet Military Administration, see Kuhrig and Speigner, 1978; pp. 49-50.

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 441

constant, namely to encourage those not already doing so to become involved in social production as well as to conduct political, cultural and educational activities centred on residential areas, particularly in rural areas.

To further these ends, the so-called women's academies of the D F D conduct lecture series culminating in an educational certificate as well as holding public lectures on topics of current affairs, political and social questions. In addition, the D F D takes an active part in environmental, social and cultural activities. It is, for example, involved in various projects to face-lift old towns. Also at the residential level, it has representatives on school committees. The somewhat old fashioned image conjured up by some of these activities is reinforced by two other central concerns of the DFD: the advice centres they run to give hints on household maintenance and d6cor, diet and nutrition, childcare and marriage, aimed primarily at young people contemplating setting up a family; and the organization of waste collection for the recycling of raw materials. The D F D is also active on the international level, working for world understanding and peace within the International Democratic Women's Federation.

It might be said, therefore, that the activities of the D F D are mainly concentrated in areas traditionally viewed as 'women's work'. In addition to peace and domestic maintenance, they pick up other peoples' rubbish. This recycling of raw materials as an economy measure is the sole direct contribution of the D F D to the fulfilment of the economic plan, an objective which dominates G.D.R. life. In fairness, however, one must point out that the DFD's efforts to educate women operate not, as is so often still the case in the West, within a framework geared simply to make them better mothers, but much more broadly, to widen their horizons both politically and culturally, encouraging them to change their lives and concerns.

The problematic nature of the DFD's constituency is bound, nevertheless, to become an issue over the next few years. With its membership of 1.4 million out of a total adult female population of over five million, it remains the only organization specifically orientated to the needs of women, with the exception of the trade union women's commissions operating at the workplace level in large factories. In addition, only 20 per cent of the DFD's membership is under 35 as compared with 45 per cent of the female population as a whole (Statistisches Jahrbuch, 1978; pp. 37, 344, 383, 393). Can this organization continue to be seen as representative of all women's interests? Surely the question of how adequately women are represented at their place of work will become more crucial than their education at the residential level? Or will the DFD, by espousing issues as yet unresolved at the domestic level of social relations, be able to ensure that it remains an organization relevant to women's current needs?

THE REPRESENTATION OF W O M E N : POLITICS AND THE TRADE UNIONS

At the workplace level, there are several structures designed to ensure that equality for women becomes more than a right which exists on paper alone. The women's commissions, set up by the political bureau of the ruling SED in 1952, in agricultural and industrial enterprises employing large numbers of women, work to police legislation affecting women, to delegate women to courses of further education open to them through the so-called women's promotion plan (Frauenf6rderungs pl/ine), and to support the appointment of women to more senior positions of responsibility. Their specific purpose is thus to ensure that equality in law becomes translated into everyday reality.

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In 1965, these women's commissions were subordinated to the enterprise trade union committees. Whilst official G.D.R. sources interpret this change as giving the women's commissions more clout, one can argue that their role has in fact become subordinate to the trade union in substance as well as in structure. Such an argument is given some weight by the following somewhat paternalistic-sounding extract from the directives on the women's commissions issued by the FDGB, the federation of trade unions in the G.D.R.:

'Enterprise trade union committees shall be fully responsible for their [the women's commissions] activities, for giving guidance to them and instructing their members. They shall ensure that decisions, laws and documents important for the responsible work of women's commissions are explained to them and provide them with relevant analyses and information' (quoted in Allendorf, 1978; p. 145).

Aside from the issue of subordination to the trade union, there are further contradictions operating with regard to the representation of women at work. The women's commissions only exist in enterprises employing large numbers of women-- thus women working in traditionally male branches of the economy where they still constitute a minority of the workforce would appear to lack this kind of representation and support. In addition, the total number of women's commissions is 10,000 with a membership of something over 80,000. It is evident that these commissions can not hope to represent adequately the interests of the more than four million working women in the G.D.R. (Statistisches Jahrbuch, 1978; pp 90, 392).

Female membership of the trade unions as a whole accounts for 51 per cent of the total, and 45 per cent of trade union functionaries at the shop-floor level are women. The latter figure of course includes the members of the women's commissions. At the national level, whilst women comprise 45 per cent of the executive of the FDGB, they make up only 20 per cent of its ruling council (Allendorf, 1978; p. 34; Kuhrig and Speigner, 1978; pp. 42-43).

The G.D.R. justifiably vaunts the fact that women participate in public and political life to a far greater extent than do their counterparts in the West. Many hold positions of authority and are sufficiently respected as women to be able to exert their authority productively, a situation to which the protocols of several women in Wander's Guten Morgen, Du Sch&ne (1977) bear witness. Figures illustrating this are the 23.4 per cent of local mayors who are women, the 40.5 per cent female members of residential area arbitration commissions, and the almost 40 per cent female representation on county and district councils. At the national level, there are 168 women in the Volkskammer (People's Chamber, the G.D.R. parliament) holding 36 per cent of the total 500 seats. This percentage representation compares with 4 per cent in the U.K., 7.8 per cent in West Germany, and only 3 per cent in the U.S.A. These very impressive figures must nevertheless be viewed within the G.D.R. context where the SED constitutes the most important decision-making body in the country. As G.D.R. spokespeople will readily admit, the 31 per cent of SED members who are women have negligible representation on the Central Committee and are not represented at all on the political bureau. 4 Thus it seems that women have a diminishing presence in the higher echelons of political structures in the G.D.R.

4 For these and further comparative figures on the political representation of women in various countries, see Allendorf, 1978; p. 30, 154; Kuhrig, 1973; pp. 15, 144; Kuhrig and Speigner, 1978; p. 24.

According to Dennis, 1980; p. 25, 13 per cent of Central Committee members of the SED are female, but there are no women in the political bureau of the Party.

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 443

ECONOMIC NEEDS AND IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENT: MEASURES FOR THE PROMOTION OF WOMEN

The SED's commitment to women's emancipation was, as we have already seen, couched from the outset not only in terms of involvement in the production process and economic independence from men, but also in terms of the full development of individual potential. It would therefore be inaccurate to see the host of legal and social measures in favour of equality purely in terms of the shortage of labour power in the aftermath of war and of the large-scale exodus of G.D.R. citizens prior to the closing of the border in 1961. One concrete example of this ideological commitment to full emancipation is that the G.D.R. is the only one of the Eastern European countries to have systematically transformed universal rhetoric on the subject of childcare facilities into an almost totally available reality. In 1977, 60 per cent of children under three were cared for in creches, whilst there was kindergarten provision for 89 per cent of 3 ~ year olds, and the trained supervision of 76 per cent of 6-10 year olds in after- school clubs doing homework and pursuing hobbies facilitated full-time work for their parents (Allendorf, 1978; p. 168).

Possible qualms may perhaps be raised as to the non-sexist nature of play in these institutions. Whilst the preamble to the Education Law and all general formulations stipulate equal rights and equal opportunity for girls and women in education, to be achieved by special positive discrimination in part, this applies mainly to the generation which is already working. For the younger generation, equality is assumed as given, so that the decree on pre-school facilities requires that they 'shall ensure a harmonious physical, mental and linguistic training of children and the formation of socialist qualities and modes of behaviour and encourage their independent activity', but there is nowhere any mention of the need to break down gender-based differentiation. There is a passing reference, in the Central Committee of the SED's report to the 9th Party Congress in 1976, to the need to overcome 'obsolete traditions and habits' in the next generation. That this need exists is exemplified in the results of research into gender-based attitudes amongst G.D.R. school and pre-school children, which showed that, by the time they start school at six years of age, traditional stereotyped preconceptions about whether boys or girls are cleverer, better behaved, have more fun, and so on were firmly entrenched. 5

The above-mentioned childcare provisions exist in addition to generous maternity benefits. These enable women to choose to stay home on the equivalent of full pay for six months after the first and a full year--the so-called baby year--after the second and subsequent children. During the period of maternity leave, including the full baby year, women's jobs must be held open for them. In addition, they may choose to stay home for a second six months after the first child on the equivalent of sickness benefit.

Whilst a cynical view might suggest that both childcare facilities and maternity leave only exist in order to encourage women to have more children, to combat the declining birth rate of the 1960s and early 1970s, this would not be an accurate interpretation. For, unlike some of the other socialist countries of Eastern Europe, the G.D.R. did not, for example, revoke its Abortion Law in the face of the drop in the birth rate. 6 Indeed this law was only

5 For stipulations covering the aims and methods ofpre-schooleducation, seeAllendorf, 1978;pp. 135-136, and Kuhrig and Speigner, 1978; 275-287. For an evaluation of the G.D.R. psychologist Heinz Dannhauer's research into gender-based attitudes amongst pre-school and schoolchildren, see Menschik and Leopold, 1974; p. 148-152.

6 In varying degrees, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria restricted access to abortion, granting it mainly to women already having one or in most cases several children. See Scott, 1978; p. 193.

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introduced somewhat belatedly in 1972, reportedly after internal opposition, in part from older women who had not themselves had access to abortion. The wording of the Abortion Act, albeit somewhat grudging in tone, yet makes clear its commitment to the principle of women's choice:

'The equality of women in education and vocation, in marriage and family makes it necessary to leave it to the discretion of women themselves to decide whether and when to have a ch i ld . . , women have the right to decide in their own responsibility on the number and timing of children they bear and shall be able to decide upon this through a termination of pregnancy.'

Through free access to birth control (mainly the Pill) for all women over 16, regardless of marital status (in a society heavily committed to marriage and the nuclear family) as well as to abortion, women in the G.D.R. have control over their own fertility, a degree of self- determination which is but a dream to most of their sisters in the West.

Thus it must be said that althought the G.D.R. is undoubtedly interested in raising the birth rate, and has had some considerable success in this since the introduction of extended maternity leave in 1976, it has simultaneously preserved women's choice and self- determination. Expanding childcare facilities and the 'baby year' give women choice over when to return to work when they have small children, while the availability of birth control and abortion allow them to choose whether and when to have children in the first place.

UNDER-REPRESENTATION AT THE TOP: SOME CAUSES

The main thrust of policies designed to achieve equality appears to have been in the field of social production. This emphasis has legal reflection in the formulation of Article 20 of the Constitution of the G.D.R., which states with regard to equality: 'Men and women shall be equal and have the same rights in all spheres of social, political and personal life. The promotion of women, particularly with regard to vocational qualification, shall be a task of society and the state'.

The undoubtedly impressive achievements of this policy may be seen in figures showing that the number of women workers classified as semi- or unskilled fell in the period 1971-1977 from 51 per cent to 33 per cent. The 67 per cent skilled women workers compared with a figure of 77 per cent male workers classified as skilled in 1977 (Allendorf, 1978; p. 158). In formerly male-dominated professions, women have made great in-roads, accounting for 45 per cent of judges, 30 per cent of lawyers and 49 per cent of doctors in the G.D.R. (as compared with 4 per cent of lawyers and 16 per cent of doctors who are women in the U.K.) (Allendorf, 1978; pp. 154, 163~; Menschik and Leopold, 1974; p. 80). Yet in education, where women accounted for 71 per cent of the workforce in 1974, only 20 per cent of head teachers were women. While 43 per cent of the workforce in agriculture were women, as of 1977, only one in six agricultural production co-operatives (LPG's) was headed by a woman (Allendorf, 1978; p. 66; Women in the G.D.R., 1975; pp. 13, 49).

It would seem, therefore, that there is a disproportion between the number of women employed in certain sectors and the percentage of them occupying responsible posts. This disproportion raises many questions, for the women's promotion plan is specifically aimed at raising the level of qualifications held by women with a view to promoting them to such posts. Such positive discrimination is enunciated in the 1950 Act on the Rights of Women and re- emphasized both in the 1976 Central Committee Report to the 9th SED Congress and in

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 445

the speeches of the 1977 Federation of Trade Unions (FDGB) Congress. Both these congresses, as well as the Labour Code of the G.D.R. guarantee women the right, on completion of further education and training, to a post in line with their qualifications.

The causes of continuing under-representation towards the top of both professional and political pyramids are complex. They may be attributed in part to the persistence of outmoded discriminatory attitudes in husbands and male colleagues, in part to structurally determined factors, in part to real dilemmas involved in the implementation of full equality. One example is the greater absenteeism on the part of women: it is still largely mothers who are off work tending sick children, despite the law giving either parent sick leave to fulfil this duty. Women only have the option of staying home with the baby during paid maternity leave entit lement--there is no paternity leave. How is it possible to deal with such absenteeism in a position of responsibility? The fact that more men than women are employed at such levels at the present time makes them less dispensable than their wives, tending to provide a structural reason for women to go on being the absentees, which perpetuates the situation.

It appears that many women themselves decline to take on positions of responsibility, whether these be at work or in a political capacity. This may be in part attributed to a lack of self confidence, but is far more likely to reflect the felt (and real) overstretching most women experience in their dual role as mother and worker, or what they see as a potential third role, if they were to become manager of an enterprise, or a public figure in state administration in addition. 7

In recent years there has been official recognition of the under-representation of women in decision-making bodies, whether they be at work or in the administration of the state, and it is declared policy to try to ameliorate the situation. The F D G B stressed at its 9th Congress in 1977 that 'the proportion of soundly educated and talented female college and technical school graduates has grown remarkably in all sectors of the national economy. The time has come now to raise the question concerning their systematic appointment to responsible positions. The trade unions should redouble their influence in regard to this matter, primarily in sectors where the overwhelming majority of staff members are women.' It is significant firstly that this imbalance has existed even in sectors of the economy dominated by women, secondly that efforts to redress the balance are to be made specifically in those sectors rather than in the economy as a whole, and thirdly, that those sectors continue to be those traditionally dominated by women, namely the non-productive sectors of the economy; the caring professions (health--83 per cent female, social welfare--94 per cent, education--71 per cent), and the service sector ( trade--72 per cent, secretarial and administrative--77 per cent, commercial cleaning--99 per cent, hotels and restaurants--92 per cent) (Handbook of the Economy, 1977, tables 6, 7, p. 168; Women in the G.D.R., 1975; pp. 45~47).

As these figures show, whereas women have made significant in-roads into formerly male- dominated occupations in industry and agriculture, the converse is not true. In their useful short article on women in the G.D.R., Taylor and Vanovitch (1980) claim, for example, that only 1 in 100 kindergarten teachers is a man. In part this is a question of attitudes, but more concretely it is still a matter of money- -what man is going to become a kindergarten or primary school teacher when he could earn far more as a skilled industrial worker? Thus the education of children, admittedly given a high status as a socialist task in the G.D.R., and the

On the concept of the third role see, for example, White, 1980; pp. 2-3.

446 BARBARA EINHORN

secondary social functions of cooking, cleaning, typing, serving are still largely areas regarded as 'women's work' in the G.D.R. today. There is no government policy to lure men into these fields by means of higher material incentives or even by ideological exhortation.

UNCOMFORTABLE PARTNERS: EQUALITY AND THE DUAL ROLE

There is a more general sense in which the complex problems of inequality outlined above are structurally determined. This is because all the measures for equality and for the promotion of women in the G.D.R. are expounded within a context which explicitly accepts the dual role for women as a natural 'given'. The programme of the SED states, in a formulation similar to that contained in the Labour Code of the G.D.R.:

'The Socialist Unity Party of Germany will make every effort to create everywhere conditions enabling women to make ever fuller use of their equal status in society and allowing for further improvements in women's working and living conditions. The consolidation of women's status in society and the development of their personality require determined efforts to ensure that women can reconcile the demands of their job still more successfully with their duties towards child and family.'

It is significant that the phrase regarding measures to enable women to 'do full justice to their noble function as mothers' in the 1966 Labour Code of the G.D.R. has been excised in the 1977 version, but all legislation continues to refer to women as workers and mothers without any attempt being made to classify men as workers and fathers. The reality of the dual role thus enshrined in law is clearly reflected in Table 1 on the gender-based division of labour within the family.

Table 1. Sexual division of household work 8

Total hours Percentage

Hours spent by women 37.1 79% Hours spent by men 6.1 13% Hours spent by others

(children, grandparents, domestic help) 3.9 8 %

47.1 10070 Breakdown by function:

Food preparation 15.5 33 % Cleaning 12.7 27 % Clothes washing 8.5 18 % Shopping 6.6 14% Other 3.8 8 70

47.1 100%

8 Source for table on the domestic division of labour: a survey conducted by the G.D.R. Institute for Market Research, summarized by Menschik and Leopold, 1974; p. 145; the results of a 1970 UNESCO study comparing the situation in various West and East European countries may be found in ibid, p. 146.

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 447

The implications of this definition have long been recognized at an official level, as the following extract from the report of the Central Committee to the 8th SED Congress in 1971 illustrates: 'What matters now is the gradual solution of all those problems which determine whether women are really able to make full use of their equal r igh t s . . . Without underestimating the help given by men in the household, it remains a fact that the main burden is borne by women.' The solution proposed by the 8th Congress and confirmed as the correct approach by the 9th Congress in 1976 is to develop further the socialization of domestic labour in the form of expanding childcare facilities, workplace canteens and restaurants, laundry and dry-cleaning facilities (there are no laundromats in the G.D.R.) and prepared and frozen food, as well as improving the distributive and service sectors in order to shorten (women's) time spent on shopping, household maintenance and repairs.

In addition, women are entitled to a so-called 'household day' off work on full pay once a month. Further positive discrimination introduced in 1976 in an attempt to deal with the problems of the dual role is the extension of the 40 hour week--until then restricted to mothers of three or more children and shiftworkers--to mothers of two or more children. The normal working week is still 43¼ hours spread over 5 days. This step introduced from above as an interim measure to alleviate the double burden has in many cases had the opposite effect from that intended, namely to reinforce the traditional division of labour. A letter in the magazine F//r Dich (No. 30, 1976) points this out, asking why the 40 hour week could not have been made available to either parent, to be agreed by mutual discussion based on individual circumstances. In fact the measure is explicitly barred to men, as is the household day, unless they are single parents (still unusual for men in the G.D.R.) or their 'wife is certified ill by a doctor ' (!)

CONTRADICTIONS REFLECTED: THE MEDIA

The role of the DFD in all this has been conformist rather than path-breaking. Evidence of this can be found in the DFD's media mouthpiece, the mass weekly Fiir Dich, which has an edition of approx, one million every week, over half of those being subscriptions. In earlier years, the magazine encouraged women to be forthright in their personal relations with men, helping to build the confidence that women could go it alone if necessary. More recently however, the very high divorce statistics in the G.D.R., two-thirds of which are applied for by women, have induced a shift in editorial policy aimed at shoring up the nuclear family, seen in the official ideology as the smallest social unit. 9 Advice columns have dwelt on the need to work through problems, and for both partners to actively build the relationship in order to keep it alive, as well as on the necessity for mutual respect and support. Marriage guidance centres, whose existence is not widely publicized in Fiir Dich or elsewhere, so that it is difficult to ascertain the extent of their usage, are reportedly being increasingly sought out in attempts to rebuild rather than break a relationship. The advice columns of Fiir Dich also deal increasingly with letters expressing sexual dissatisfaction or wanting advice on how to cope with sexual infidelity within marriage. At the same time, articles have dealt with some of the effects and implications of divorce for all the former family members, yet the norm to which all psychological and social advice is orientated is marriage and the family.

9 In 1977, there were 25.7 divorces for every 10,000 of the G.D.R. population. These figures are high, as exemplified by comparison with the West German figures of 17.3 per 10,000 inhabitants. Sources: 1978 Statistical Yearbook of the G.D.R., pp. 349, 363 and 1981 Fischer Worm Almanac (for West German statistics).

448 BARBARA EINHORN

Within this context, the journal has in the last few years made great efforts to promote changed attitudes with regard to gender-based behaviour both at work and at home and thus to help overcome some of the contradictions and continuing discrimination with which women in the G.D.R. are faced. One of the principle modes of approaching this area of discussion has been through two series of articles and readers' letters, on the topics of Young Women Today, and Young Men Today.

The first appeared in 1978 and gave expression to frustration as well as aspirations. Some examples will illustrate some of the problems and contradictions indicated above as characteristic of the situation of women in the G.D.R. today. Several young women touched on the question of what I have called the triple burden. One mother of three young children and a single mother of one child wrote that they had felt obliged temporarily to give up their posts in the union and the FDJ (Free German Youth) respectively for the reason that they felt unable to do justice to this social function simultaneously with their full-time job and parenthood, especially where a young child was frequently ill. It is interesting to note that these letters brought negative reactions as well as positive echoes from other women in the same situation. Men and a number of older women, who had a struggle with young families before the days of creche facilities and other measures for the promotion of women, were scathing in their criticism of egotistical, socially irresponsible, ungrateful, unreliable young women. Young women meanwhile argued: was it not enough that they worked hard at their job, often doing correspondence or evening classes to further their qualification and thus their eventual contribution to the economy as well as bringing up a family?

Going off work to look after sick children was frequently mentioned as cause for the eruption of prejudice against women--fellow workers accusing them of not fully earning their wage. The same justification was used to explain to one young woman that further study would not earn her promotion to a post in line with the higher qualification, since she was away too often on account of her two young children. Thus female absenteeism can act as grounds for discrimination at work.

Similarly, the programme of special courses designed for women to improve their educational qualifications is undermined by contradictions in gender-based role differenti- ation within the family. The very progressive Family Code of the G.D.R. specifies that each individual within a marriage has the right'to develop his/her own potential to the full and to expect support from the other partner whilst furthering her/his training or education. In practice, however, it is still all too often the woman who supports the man in making his career. One young woman wrote justifying her decision to put her own career promotion into cold storage for 10-15 years on the grounds that two people studying as well as working full- time would make for a tense atmosphere in the family. She therefore felt justified in protecting her husband from the children's noise and problems so that he could study in peace. She herself would not be too old to further her qualifications when she was 35 and the children more independent. This letter provoked a storm of protest: 'Where is it written' asked one young woman, ' that when compromises are necessary in the interests of the family, it is only the woman who has to make them, who has to postpone her life?' Other letters supported her, arguing, as does Rosi in the opening quotation of this paper that compromise is necessary, and that any other stance represents non-constructive extremism.

The editorial summing up of the debate was conciliatory in a positive sense. Some letters had accused the 80 per cent of young women who make use of their right to the full baby year of being egotistic and irresponsible towards their work collective, who were having to shoulder the extra workload in their absence, while other letters held that those who

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 449

immediately returned to work were irresponsible towards their child(ren). The magazine did not attempt to clarify where social responsibility lay, but stressed that in neither case could the individual women involved be said to be irresponsible. Rather, they were exercising choice. Freedom of choice, they said, is what a socialist society aims to give the individual within the scope made possible by the availability of the relevant social facilities. Thus the exercise of this prerogative confirmed, they maintained, the achievements of the G.D.R. as a socialist society aiming for the full development of individual potential. 1°

In its handling of these media debates, as well as in the advice columns of Fiir Dieh, and through its other activities such as lecture series, it may be seen that the DFD is striving-- within the given theoretical framework in which marriage and the nuclear family are not questioned--to modify gender-based behaviour. Its efforts are aimed not solely at further socializing domestic labour, but also at changing attitudes, and thus at liberating women in some degree at the level of personal as well as social relations.

CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING: THE ROLE OF LITERATURE

The limiting of the conceptual framework, together with the very nature of a public debate in the pages of a mass media organ mean, however, that many of the more subtle aspects of emancipation, the self-doubts, questioning and reappraisal of social roles which individual women experience, do not receive a hearing through the DFD. Other issues are excluded by the very nature of the ideological framework and by the DFD's being an organization which, unlike western women's movements, basically affirms the society in which it operates. Such issues include violence against women--rape, wife-beating, and the whole area of sexuality and identity, sexuality and autonomy, including homosexuality.

While homosexuality no longer has the extra-social stigma of illegality, it is still considered as an unfortunate abnormality to be treated with compassion and tolerance but avoidance. Violence against women belongs to a whole area of continuing social reality to which the G.D.R. has difficulty in admitting. This situation results from the mechanistic view that with the abolition of private ownership of the means of production, all forms of exploitation would automatically disappear. Thus rape, mugging and other forms of violence against the person have no official existence in the G.D.R. It is therefore virtually impossible to gain any idea of how widespread such problems are. Interesting questions remain unanswered, such as whether the immeasurably higher status of women in the G.D.R. has meant a decrease in such offences, and how their occurrence compares with similar incidence in the West.

Some of the issues excluded from public debate, as well as the contradictions publicly discussed, are finding expression in recent literature in the G.D.R. It is precisely because of literature's sociological--or in this case one might say consciousness-raising function in providing a forum for airing topical problems that the authorities are so sensitive about writers and their views. This multiplier aspect is often not grasped by western onlookers, especially since the impact of literature is so incomparably greater than in the West, as a result of the cultural policy followed by the G.D.R. in the earlier years. This policy aimed to make literature accessible, not just to an intellectual elite, but to the mass of the people. Writers were exhorted to use simple colloquial language. In addition, educational policy and the provision of library facilities were designed to raise the reading level of the population as a

so The letters and editorial views cited here may be found in the following numbers ofFiir Dich (1978): nos. 1, 8, 10, 19, 20, 34.

450 BARBARA EINHORN

whole. The outcome has been a mass readership for all literature, not merely for detective fiction or historical romance. Novels are published in editions far larger than in the West and tend to be sold out almost immediately.

An example is Guten Morgen, Du Schb'ne (Good Morning, You Beautiful One) (Wander, 1977) which has been reprinted several times since it was originally published. It was the first published work in the G.D.R. in which women spoke for themselves, and with a frankness and explicit treatment of their frustrations, hopes and aspirations, including discussion of sexuality, which was until then unheard of. Its impact was sensational, both at the private level and in public, where both theatre and television dramatized extracts from it.

Some of the more subtle, less visible problems involved in the struggle to realize the equality guaranteed women in the G.D.R. have been expressed in short stories by young women writers. One example is the story 'Im Friedrichshain' (In the Friedrichshain Hospital) by Brigitte Martin (1977) who specifically sees her role as a writer as consciousness-raiser In this story the first person narrator tells of the psychological pain involved in the abortion to which she is legally entitled. She takes sick leave, not as she is entitled to, for her abortion, but supposedly to look after a sick child, since she, as a single mother, does not want her work colleagues to gossip. She portrays the didactic condescension of the male doctor who chides her for her failure to use birth control effectively; should she take the Pill regularly, when her out-of-town lover visits, unpredictably, only every 4-6 weeks? And what of her aloneness during this experience with remorse and guilt? Who is there for her in her moment of need? As she puts it: 'A relationship between a man and a woman should have many facets which ours lacks, for example it shouldn't be just you who is happy, and you should think of the fact that I am on my own with two children.. . It is true that never before in my whole life has anyone got so involved in my problems, cared so much, got on so well with the children... but I have to pay dearly in order to get a man for a couple of hours every four weeks. You go back to your security with strength you have gained from another life. I give myself totally. But you--I don't even have your address' (Martin, 1977).

In 'Bolero', Helga K6nigsdorf (1978) gives a grotesque twist in her portrayal of one woman's reaction to a situation like this. After years of being there for her married colleague and lover, being 'available' at his convenience and 'at his service' both sexually and domestically--he likes a good meal with his sex--in a relationship which has long bored her were it not for her loneliness, the female narrator takes her revenge. Feeling resentful and exploited, robbed of initiative and autonomy in a situation where not only does the man use her sexually and emotionally, but he even gets credit at work for intellectual creativity which is hers, she tips him over the balcony of her twelfth floor fiat one fine day, as he is getting dressed before returning to respectability. No-one asks the question, she remarks to her whimsical musing as to why she did it, why such a proper person would have committed suicide without his shoes on.

The black humour of this story is a new ingredient in G.D.R. literature and is characteristic of several by female authors exposing the contradictions and the persistence of gender-based power relations with which they are faced at the personal level. It is interesting to note that while it is mainly in recent works written by men that such hitherto taboo topics as rape and homosexuality are portrayed (see Noll, 1978; Schreiter, 1977) the issues most dealt with by young women writers are those of the everyday nitty gritty existence of women. One particular target has been the superwoman image much publicised by the media, i.e. the woman who masters her dual or triple role effortlessly, holding down a position of responsibility at work, being an exemplary wife and mother, and on school or party

Socialist Emancipation: The Women's Movement in the G.D.R. 451

committees to boot. Several stories by women suggest through irony or black humour that it is possible to achieve such super-efficiency only with the help of magic, a means totally incompatible with the tenets of scientific socialism. One such story is Charlotte Worgitsky's F a r e w e l l to a C a r e e r (Karriere abgesagt) (1978), in which a woman 'confesses' as to how she made it to superwoman status, namely with the help of an (probably female, she thinks) angel, who grants her the ability to not need sleep. Thus the 8-12 night hours which most people need for sleep are hers for the fulfilment of her double shift. As she muses while awaiting her turn at a televised medal presentation 'in honour of our best people', of whom she is the only woman: 'I had the suspicion that they, like me, had made a midnight pact, but even before I was called onto the stage, the penny dropped about the fundamental difference between men and those honoured with me: they were men. The wives sitting in the audience will be the ones who cope, who see to and deal with all the things for which I need my night-time hours.'

CONCLUSION

The dissatisfactions and the aspirations being voiced in literature in the G.D.R. about the contradictions faced by women will have a reverberating effect, and it should be most interesting to observe the changes which will be effected in the situation of women in the G.D.R. over the next few years. It must be borne in mind, however, that the difficulties implied in this literature and in the letters to Fiir Dich, while they may appear similar to those faced by women in the West, occur on a fundamentally different level as a result both of the legal and social realisation of the preconditions for women's emancipation and of the greater confidence and self-awareness achieved by women on this basis.

The mechanisms for change in the future are as yet unclear. The state has done all that is in its power to do within its ideological framework with the provision of the legal, social and educational conditions to guarantee equality with the possible exception of more explicit writing into the law and policies aimed at overcoming outmoded gender-based behaviour, educational practice and defining men as workers and fathers. The contradictions being expressed in literature and in the media do not have their parallel in the growth of a grass-roots women's organization as has been the case in the West.

Such organizations do not exist and would not be encouraged in the G.D.R., since they could be seen to represent an alternative political organization such as that embodied in Poland's Solidarity trade union organization.

The existing women's organization, the DFD, has, as we have seen, become in some ways an anachronistic organization which is no longer adequate to or representative of the needs of the mass of women in the G.D.R. However, its academies, participation in which almost doubled between 1974/1975 and 1976/1977, and its advice centres provide a possible material base for a future relevant role. Further, its sponsorship of the series in Fiir Dich questioning social relations as they stand suggests that it may be able to adapt itself to the changing needs of G.D.R. women. The next few years will be crucial in determining both the fate of the D F D and the future of emancipation in the G.D.R., a situation which has great significance and relevance for women everywhere.

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