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This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany

Tim Flight December 18, 2019 25 min

Berlin Wall - Checkpoint Charlie — A man peers over the newly-built Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Guardian

20. The GDR encouraged women to work and they got equal pay

Women working in a factory take a break, East Germany, 1980s. Pinterest

The GDR was miles ahead of the curve when it came to feminism. Viewing the traditional domestic and maternal roles of women as a bourgeois ideology, the SED found an untapped workforce. Workplaces in the GDR had quotas for women employees, and the SED introduced free childcare to enable women to work. GDR law also dictated equal pay for women. This policy has left an important legacy. The gender pay gap in East Germany is still much smaller than in West Germany. In some East German cities today, women actually earn more on average than men.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk