Once WWI finally came to an end, German Democratic Republic’s goal was to create a high demand for labor due to the destruction caused by war. The society had to be rebuilt since it was buried under an extremely large debt to the Soviet Union. East Germany’s culture was heavily influenced by communism and particularly Stalinism. It not only intensified the economic and political competition against its West German counterparts, but it resulted in German Democratic Republic’s repressive nature to the point where German Democratic Republic citizens made many attempts to escape what was essentially a dictatorship. Yet, surprisingly the numbers of fertility rates in German Democratic Republic were higher than of West Germany before unification. Politically East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union and West Germany was aided by the Democratic West and the United States, which meant that the two countries had to have developed separate governments that were influenced by different ideologies. The communist leaders of East Germany wanted to build a system that emphasized a sense of responsibility and obligation to the collective society and also a strong moral obedience to the socialist goals. Therefore, polices that were created to reinforce socialist beliefs also impacted the numbers of birth rates, regardless of marital status. As a result, the relationship between social, economical, political policies and the lives of women played a key role for either increasing or decreasing in fertility.
Unlike West Germany, the Communists were in desperate need of women in the labor force, which is why there was an unusual strong emphasis on the importance of women’s employment. There was a lot at stake, for instance, reparation for the S...
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...d Fertility in Eastern Germany,”
Journal of Marriage and Family (1997): 44.
Monika Maron, “Letzter Zugriff auf die Frau” [“Final Charge on Women”], in Monika Maron,
“Nach Maßgabe meiner Befreiungskraft: Artikel und Essays.” © S. Fischer Verlag
GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, 1993, pp. 91-93. Translated by Allison Brown.
Neues Deutschland, no. 227, September 28, 1950, pp. 1-3; reprinted in Dierk Hoffmann and
Michael Schwartz, eds., Geschichte der Sozialpolitik in Deutschland seit 1945. Bd. 8:
1949-1961: Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Im Zeichen des Aufbaus des Sozialismus
[History of Social Policy in Germany since 1945, Vol. 8: 1949-1961: German Democratic
Republic. Under the Sign of the Build Up of Socialism]. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2004, no.
8/42. Translated by Thomas Dunlap.
After the end of World War II, the United States went through many changes. Most of the changes were for the better, but some had an adverse effect on certain population centers. Many programs, agencies and policies were created to transform American society and government.
In 1943, most women worked as teachers, nurses, or done some sort of domestic labor. Their opportunities were nowhere near as vast as the men’s. This caused the women to feel left out or unequal. Women fought for more equal opportunities as well as equal treatment. This along with their sense of patriotism is what led them to work in these factories. They wanted to be viewed as equal counterparts and have the same opportunities as men during this time. Not as many opportunities were open to the women so they jumped at the chance to widen them when the idea of working in the factories came up. This also paired with their sense of patriotism, making their determination to work stronger. The women knew the men were off fighting for their freedom so this would give them a chance to contribute to the cause as well as help war production. This challenged the views of the workplace as well as the beliefs of where women belonged in the workplace. Numerous men...
During the time of 1940-1945 a big whole opened up in the industrial labor force because of the men enlisting. World War II was a hard time for the United States and knowing that it would be hard on their work force, they realized they needed the woman to do their part and help in any way they can. Whether it is in the armed forces or at home the women showed they could help out. In the United States armed forces about 350,000 women served at home and abroad. The woman’s work force in the United States increased from 27 percent to nearly 37percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married woman worked outside the home. This paper will show the way the United States got the woman into these positions was through propaganda from
The period after World War One was very politically unstable. Many different kinds of governments, such as fascism and communism, were coming up all over Europe. One country that especially faced this political fluctuation was Germany. After the war, Germany was forced into a democracy known as the Weimar Republic, but this government soon collapsed and Hitler’s fascism took over. There were various factors that contributed to the fall of the Weimar Republic, but three major ones were the lack of popular support for the government, the lack of efficiency and internal organization, and the competition of other, more conservative parties such as the Nazis.
With the spread of the Nazi’s “national community” or Volksgemeinschaft ideology in the 1930s, came strict definitions from the Nazi party of what it meant to be German. Opposing the independent “new women” promoted in the 1920s by the Weimar Republic, the Nazi’s idea of womanhood was centered around creating a strong nation by pushing women to be mothers and maintain the household. In this way, those mothers could raise strong soldiers that could serve and protect Nazi Germany. While in contrast, Elsa Herrmann description of a “new woman” in a 1929 book, describes a woman focused on the present and actions such as entering the workforce. Most importantly, and the main reason the Nazis rejected the image of the “new woman,” is that the “new
World War II as a Good War The vast majority of Americans supported World War II (WWII) after Pearl Harbor was bombed, recognizing a fascist threat to Western democracy. WWII was a good war. It had the ability to unite America. They united against Nazism and fascism. But even a good War has its bad times.
The American Yawp states, “And for all of the postwar celebration of Rosie the Riveter, after the war ended the men returned and most women voluntarily left the work force or lost their jobs” (3). The resemblance and/or uprising that the idea of women taking on jobs liken-to women of the Soviet Union. The Role of Women in the Soviet Union states,
Germany experienced a lot of economic changes after Germany was split into East Germany and West Germany. Initially, West Germany was established as a federal republic but was established as it’s own independent nation in 1955. Many events happened in West Germany from the 1950s to the 1980s before Germany became one nation again. There were events such as “oils price shocks, generous social programs, rising deficits and loss of control.” East Germany’s economy was strong due to the Soviet Union’s reliance on Eastern Germany’s production of machine tools, chemicals and electronics. It became appealing to reunite with West Germany when the value of East Germany’s currency became “worthless” outside of it’s country because Eastern Germany was relying on the Soviet Union’s demand (Marketline).
Koussoudji, Sherrie A. and Laura J. Dresser. “Working class Rosies: Women Industrial Workers During World War II” The Journal of Economic History 51.2 (June 1992): 431-446
World War II had a large effect on America, on how we were regarded in the world, on how our culture would grow and develop, and on how our citizens would develop and settle the land on their return. It brought people together for a while that were later torn apart, and changed the way Americans looked at higher education. Perhaps most importantly, it brought America to the world and served it up to them as something that could grow and become part of their culture, call it the Coca-Colonization of the world (Marling).
Despite men and women being portrayed as equals, in reality, the percentages of genders in different careers were astonishingly skewed. Men also were overwhelmingly prominent in the highest paying careers while women help most of the lower paying careers. Conformity under Socialism was also a huge Soviet ideal and was portrayed as such. In reality, though, citizens who lived under Socialism did whatever they could to be unique despite the consequences. Some things they did in secret, like drawing pictures that were not depicting the Soviet ideals like Sis, or buying goods through the illegal black market. These actions expressed people’s uniqueness, which was not stifled by the State’s portrayal of conformity. Looking at how life under Socialism was portrayed during that time period is a completely incorrect view of the harsh reality of life under
'Nazi Germany ' represented the period from 1933s to 1945s, which played an important role in prosperous German history and the modern European history. After Germany participated in First World War in the first half of the 20th century, the whole society was glutted with unemployment, poverty, hunger, inflation and moral corruption. The public couldn’t feel the republican democracy benefits.
The German Reunification failed in its attempt to bring the two Germanys together after being separated for nearly 45 years. The myriad of negative ramifications brought about by the Reunification only strengthened the divide between the East and West Germans. The devaluation of the East German mark and depopulation of East German cities, along with unemployment and poor living conditions, instigated discontent among the East Germans. West Germany’s “taking over” of East Germany in the act of Reunification induced a lopsided economy with its Eastern half still trying to catch up to its Western half, establishing the myth of German Reunification.
American Society on the Change during the Post-World War Years. After World War II, Americans experienced a time of rapid social change. American soldiers were discharged and returned home from the battlefields, hoping to find work and to get on with their lives. Marriage rates increased dramatically after the war.
The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their duties were fulfilling the patriotic and feminine role. After the war the government and media had changed their message as women were to resume the role of the housewife, maid and mother to stay out of the way of returning soldiers. Thus the patriotic and feminine role was nothing but a mystified tactic the government used to maintain the American economic structure during the world war period. It is the contention of this paper to explore how several groups of women were treated as mindless individuals that could be controlled and disposed of through the government arranging social institutions, media manipulation and propaganda, and assumptions behind women’s tendencies which forced “Rosie the Riveter” to become a male dominated concept.