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> In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West. Equal rights were implemented by law since inception of E
by bildung 8y ago
> In terms of women's participation in the workforce the communist states were far ahead of the West.
Equal rights were implemented by law since inception of East Germany in 1949. In West Germany, the husband could legally forbid his wife to work until 1977(!).
Being gay was also legalized earlier than in West Germany.
- stormking 8y ago> In West Germany, the husband could legally forbid his wife to work until 1977(!). That's a feminist myth. He could only cancel her contract and only if he could prove in a court of law that she abandoned her "home duties". It is also not known how often this law was actually enforced in reality, if at all. The other way around, husbands were legally required to provide for their family, that was their duty. So while I think that it's wrong to have fixed gender roles enforced by the state, please stop pretending that this was a one-way-street.
- bildung 8y agoMy source was Wikipedia. In either case it was a West German peculiarity and unheard of in East Germany.