4 ms·

I can't find the link now, but I remember reading about a paper (probably through Marginal Revolution) that showed that, in the GDR, because men and women worke

I can't find the link now, but I remember reading about a paper (probably through Marginal Revolution) that showed that, in the GDR, because men and women worked equally and earned equally (in the general case, party leaders aside), a lot of cultural gender equality just became the norm. E.g. men couldn't impress women with nice cars or any of the other status symbols that are so common in the West, and had to 'convince potential mates' through their personalities and actions. So a lot of the gender roles of the West were basically obliterated, i.e. there was no real stay-at-home mother in the GDR, all mothers were working mothers. Seems to fit your experience, and the GP as well.

eru 10y ago
Also, there were almost no nice cars to be had.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Social signalling is relative to the things available for that society. Even if there were no "nice cars" available by your standards, there still were "impressive" cars, relative to the society in question.
  - eru 10y ago
    I used to live there. East Germans got West German TV. They knew about West German cars. (And in any case, the range of cars available was much more compressed. Thus there was less differentiation at the high range.)
  - StudyAnimal 10y ago
    No I think except for the politicians and military most people just got the standard model of Trabant or nothing.
    - eru 10y ago
      You could also get a Wartburg, a Moskvitch or a Lada, and a few others. Probably also Skoda, but I don't remember hearing about them back then. The big brass were driving Volvos. They were nice cars, but Sweden was seen as sufficiently neutral and socialist-like.
Lawtonfogle 10y ago
>E.g. men couldn't impress women with nice cars or any of the other status symbols that are so common in the West, and had to 'convince potential mates' through their personalities and actions Is this gender equality? It sounds, and it may just be because you simplified it to fit into a single line, that the men were still having to impress the women. Wouldn't gender equality have been the end of there being a set gender having to impress the other?

eru 10y ago

Also, there were almost no nice cars to be had.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
Social signalling is relative to the things available for that society. Even if there were no "nice cars" available by your standards, there still were "impressive" cars, relative to the society in question.
- eru 10y ago
  I used to live there. East Germans got West German TV. They knew about West German cars. (And in any case, the range of cars available was much more compressed. Thus there was less differentiation at the high range.)
- StudyAnimal 10y ago
  No I think except for the politicians and military most people just got the standard model of Trabant or nothing.
  - eru 10y ago
    You could also get a Wartburg, a Moskvitch or a Lada, and a few others. Probably also Skoda, but I don't remember hearing about them back then. The big brass were driving Volvos. They were nice cars, but Sweden was seen as sufficiently neutral and socialist-like.

Lawtonfogle 10y ago

>E.g. men couldn't impress women with nice cars or any of the other status symbols that are so common in the West, and had to 'convince potential mates' through their personalities and actions Is this gender equality? It sounds, and it may just be because you simplified it to fit into a single line, that the men were still having to impress the women. Wouldn't gender equality have been the end of there being a set gender having to impress the other?