H/W
How accurate is it to say that women were ofered genuine opportunites to improve their
social status in the years 1949-1985?
I believe that it would be somewhat accurate to say that women were ofered genuine
opportunites to improve their social status, however to assess this, it would need to be compared to
the opportunites that were oferedd his includes employment, equal rights, and further support
with the familyd
One way in which women were ofered genuine opportunites includes equal rights and support
for families; for example, aborton became legalised in 1972, with contraceptves becoming available
free of charged his gave women more independence and control of their reproductve rights, which
suggests that women were given more control over their livesd In this respect, women we ofered
genuine opportunites to improve their social status, because if they were able to choose what
would happen to their bodies, it would give them further optons to choose in their lives, such as
going to work and developing a careerd Despite this, mothers had double the burden as men, due to
their need to work, whilst supportng the new born babies, and on occasion their elderly families as
well; from this, it shows that women were stll stereotyped to be the carers in the household, whilst
the men were the breadwinnersd You can infer from this that men and women were stll not equal,
and therefore women were not given opportunites to improve their social status to the same
degree as men wered his can be shown by how women were considerably underrepresented in
politcs, with the only female minister in GDR history being Margot Honeckerd his gives a clear
indicaton of how women were not given genuine opportunites, partcularly in politcs and jobs that
required a higher degree of educaton, and therefore the improvement of women’s social status was
hindered by how men were making laws for womend
o add to the reformaton of women’s opportunites, crèches and nursery schools were also
expanded, and by 1974 the GDR had exceeded much of the Western worldd his was shown to be
popular with 60% of infants up to the age of three being placed in such facilites, and when
considering the pressure put on mothers who were expected to do so much with such litle
resources, it did enable mothers to relieve some stressd In this respect, it did allow for women’s
social status to be improved, as it meant that within the GDR, women and mothers were being put
at the forefront of the agenda of the government, therefore meaning that there was some genuine
atempt to ofer women opportunites to improve their social status during this periodd However,
whilst the nurseries were popular, they only further reinforced traditonal aatudes rather than
reduce them; from this you can infer that the GDR only gave support and opportunites to mothers,
not women, suggestng that genuine opportunites for women were limited, in turn limitng their
social statusd his was due to how the aim of the GDR was to rectfy the birth rate crisis, but in order
to do so alienated women who weren’t mothers, efectvely only ofering support and genuine
opportunites to improve social status to those who had children, as opposed to all womend From
this perspectve, it would seem more accurate to say that women were not ofered genuine
opportunites to improve social statusd
o counteract that, however, is the opportunity women were given in employmentd By the 1980s,
the GDR had one of the highest proportons of female employment in the world with 90%, a boost in
comparison to the FRG, which on had 50%d You can infer from this that economic well-being had
been taken seriously and that government had allowed for increased access for women to further
How accurate is it to say that women were ofered genuine opportunites to improve their
social status in the years 1949-1985?
I believe that it would be somewhat accurate to say that women were ofered genuine
opportunites to improve their social status, however to assess this, it would need to be compared to
the opportunites that were oferedd his includes employment, equal rights, and further support
with the familyd
One way in which women were ofered genuine opportunites includes equal rights and support
for families; for example, aborton became legalised in 1972, with contraceptves becoming available
free of charged his gave women more independence and control of their reproductve rights, which
suggests that women were given more control over their livesd In this respect, women we ofered
genuine opportunites to improve their social status, because if they were able to choose what
would happen to their bodies, it would give them further optons to choose in their lives, such as
going to work and developing a careerd Despite this, mothers had double the burden as men, due to
their need to work, whilst supportng the new born babies, and on occasion their elderly families as
well; from this, it shows that women were stll stereotyped to be the carers in the household, whilst
the men were the breadwinnersd You can infer from this that men and women were stll not equal,
and therefore women were not given opportunites to improve their social status to the same
degree as men wered his can be shown by how women were considerably underrepresented in
politcs, with the only female minister in GDR history being Margot Honeckerd his gives a clear
indicaton of how women were not given genuine opportunites, partcularly in politcs and jobs that
required a higher degree of educaton, and therefore the improvement of women’s social status was
hindered by how men were making laws for womend
o add to the reformaton of women’s opportunites, crèches and nursery schools were also
expanded, and by 1974 the GDR had exceeded much of the Western worldd his was shown to be
popular with 60% of infants up to the age of three being placed in such facilites, and when
considering the pressure put on mothers who were expected to do so much with such litle
resources, it did enable mothers to relieve some stressd In this respect, it did allow for women’s
social status to be improved, as it meant that within the GDR, women and mothers were being put
at the forefront of the agenda of the government, therefore meaning that there was some genuine
atempt to ofer women opportunites to improve their social status during this periodd However,
whilst the nurseries were popular, they only further reinforced traditonal aatudes rather than
reduce them; from this you can infer that the GDR only gave support and opportunites to mothers,
not women, suggestng that genuine opportunites for women were limited, in turn limitng their
social statusd his was due to how the aim of the GDR was to rectfy the birth rate crisis, but in order
to do so alienated women who weren’t mothers, efectvely only ofering support and genuine
opportunites to improve social status to those who had children, as opposed to all womend From
this perspectve, it would seem more accurate to say that women were not ofered genuine
opportunites to improve social statusd
o counteract that, however, is the opportunity women were given in employmentd By the 1980s,
the GDR had one of the highest proportons of female employment in the world with 90%, a boost in
comparison to the FRG, which on had 50%d You can infer from this that economic well-being had
been taken seriously and that government had allowed for increased access for women to further
