Lessons from East Germany: The Conditions of Women After German Reunification

Democracy and the democratization of authoritarian regimes are lauded as necessary for women to achieve equal rights. However, German reunification defied expectations and resulted in declining gender equality. East German women lost many progressive economic and political conditions after reunifying with democratic and comparatively West Germany. This contributes nuance to the previous theory that cultural values and economic integration influence how gender equality can be achieved. This study employs quantitative methods to evaluate if the protections imposed upon East German women from the Communist regime primed East German to have more progressive attitudes about gender equality post-reunification. With regards to economic participation, the results showed that East German women held significantly more progressive views than West German women. This indicates that economic integration impacts attitudes about women in the workforce and may predict how gender equality will be conceptualized in an ideal Korean reunification and other future reunifications.