What is dramatic in this context, is the lack of imagination, the lack of ideas of all the opposition currents, their inability to put across an alternative model. Even though we, the women's movement, have alternative proposals, especially for the environment, we lack credibility, because we do not have the means for putting these ideas into practice. Consequently, what we are seeing today is an attempt to make East Germany compatible with the West German system. Our country is thus getting ready to be "swallowed up" by West Germany, and that will be to the detriment of the East German population, because the Federal Republic is not ready to pay enough to compensate for the social ine-
If we were cleverer, we would say, "OK, let's have immediate reunification, but let West Germany put its money where its mouth is, and bear the cost of the equalization process." It would say no, and that would open up a field of action. But we are too dumb, and we say: "Wait, Kohl is going to save East Germany from disaster." And up till now what has happened? He has set the conditions and not us. From week to week, he poses new conditions. We try to adjust ourselves to them, and he is paying practically nothing!
It seems to be now inevitable that this evolution will run its course. I think, in any case, that our country will go through capitalism. We have to go through the experience ourselves, to see really what a society of "consumer terrorism" is. It seems absolutely unrealistic to think that we can pass directly from an economy of poverty to an
In fact, I am quite pessimistic, not only with regard to our future but in a broader context, because I do not see any possible radical alternative, when one is so necessary, especially with respect to the exploitation of the third world or with respect to the destruction of our environment. All the scientists seem to agree that this world still has another 35 years to go. That is the perspective we all face, including you. *
1. Up until now, in the parliamentary elections, a certain number of seats were reserved for the official mass organizations (women, youth). The women's organization (DFD) thus had 60 seats out of 470.
2. The new electoral law adopted since this interview allows "broad movements" to run in the elections on the same basis as the political parties. The Independent
Women's Federation has decided to put up its own candidates in the framework of an alliance with the
United Left and the Greens.
----- photo credits and running heads -----
9
Birth of independent women's movement in the GDR
EAST GERMANY
ON DECEMBER 3 last year, the first coordinating meeting of women's groups took place in Berlin.
More than 1,000 women took part, most between the ages of 24 and 45. A few men were also present.
There were women from the ex-SED (Communist party), the Demokratischer
Frauenbund Deutschland
(DFD - the official women s organization) the journal Für Dich ("For
You"), representatives of recently formed groups like the Lila Offensive, and women from the United
Left, writers, artists and so on. They were there to found the Autonomous
Movement of Women, elect their two representatives to the Round Table and set out their demands for a new policy towards women.
One of the high points of the meeting was the reading by ina Merkel of the
United Left of a radical eight-point manifesto of which large extracts are published below.
S
OME SAY that the "women question" is solved. Others say that it is not the main problem today, but some of us say that now is the time to put it on the agenda. But what is it, this "women question"?
We, women, say this: the social changes in the GDR were set off by the masses in
Women were present at all stages of this process. They were in the forefront and have participated in the struggle, they have been affected by the massive exodus of the population and were victims of the usurpers of power. But as soon as the time came to work out the perspectives for the renewal of socialist society, women found themselves once again excluded.
"The country needs new men" runs one of the slogans endlessly repeated in recent weeks. Don't we need new women as well? The new leader Modrow has a wom-
10 an deputy: a new beginning?
The society is going through a profound
International Viewpoint #180 • March 12, 1990 crisis. Today, as before, thousands of citizens are leaving the country. The leading party is morally bankrupt. It seems likely that Socialism is going to disappear as a system. The other side is licking its lips.
We must oppose this apparently inevitable evolution with an alternative model of society. But who today will listen to us when we speak about a renovated Socialism? Nonetheless, this country must give us the opportunity to build a society whose real aim is to permit the expression of individual potential: otherwise this country will disappear. A society in which work and consumption, politics and way of life would be modelled by the self-determining subjects, who govern themselves. This implies the optimal development of the economy, in such a way that it ceases to dominate people's needs and aspirations, but allows social spaces, free time and objective conditions favourable to individual development to be created.
This does not rule out political power, but it does exclude the subjection of the individual to this power. This implies radically new economic and political mechanisms and structures, that can guarantee social progress. It means that people can intervene in the process of social development and are able to constantly renew and correct it.
It is clear that a reform of the economy and political system is necessary, but the changes in the way of life, needs and social situation must not be postponed once again with the excuse that it depends on others. We must have alternative ideas about ways of living. We must demand that the parties and political movements tell us what perspectives a particular strategy involves in this respect. Our hopes, the problems of women, must also become a constituent part of an alternative social project.
We must uphold the idea that "women's issues" are not some secondary social problem, but are vital and fundamental. They are about the way society lives, its reproduction, its possibilities for development and its goals. That is why, if we as women want to ensure that our own specific interests, that flow from our particular situation and specific experience, are really taken into account in a project for a modern society, we must ourselves have a global approach to society.
What might the main themes of such a conception be? Which are general questions and which are specific to women?
1. In recent years this society has been careering towards the abyss. We have witnessed a rapid deterioration in living conditions and the social situation. This development has been clearly shown by the worsening of relations between women and men, in rising divorce rates and the fall in the birth-rate. It is also reflected in the fall in living standards for single mothers and by a shameful neglect of elder women, those who carried the burden of reconstruction on their shoulders after 1945.
But this regression is also apparent where no one wants to see it: in the fall in the wages of women and men, in the shrinking of possibilities for women and men to influence their material and cultural living conditions, and the lessening of their political power. It is women who have had to compensate by extra work for the failures of the social services. Women are more and more at risk from male aggression. The transformation of the female body into a sexual object has become a social fact.
In the end, it will be our children who will be the victims of our inability to evolve. They are the ones who will inherit the consequences of dozens of years of economic improvidence and neglect of the environment. They suffer from the nervousness and lack of feelings of mothers and fathers under extreme stress. They are the victims of an anachronistic system of
March 12, 1990 • #180 International Viewpoint upbringing.
These are some of the most serious socio-cultural consequences of state and bureaucratic Socialism. The arbitrary power of a male elite has led this country to the edge of disaster. It is men who bear the major part of the responsibility for the policies pursued during recent decades, and above all those who have sustained these policies as political leaders, directors and enterprise managers. Women also bear a political responsibility for this situation, but they find themselves in subordinate positions in every domain.
2. We are today confronted by the fact that, for many of our citizens, both men and women, any kind of social or cultural identification with Socialism may collapse. Already, recourse is being made to the "land of our fathers". But we have to ask ourselves if we are able to oppose to the ideas of reunification or unification a problems of women are widely debated and become political questions.
It is only when women are proportionally represented that they will be able to rise above their interests as a marginalized social group and concern themselves, in the same way as men, with global political questions. It is precisely because women are not a social minority, but make up half of humanity, that they must be able to say their word on all the questions concerning humanity. A women's movement that only orientated towards specifically women's issues and had no overall social conception would marginalize itself.
6. This is why we defend the idea of a fourfold separation of powers. The classical separation between the legislative, executive and judicial powers must be completed by a fourth power, public
EAST GERMANY / USSR democracy.
We are also in favour of the creation of a wide network of women's media, including journals, radio and TV channels and stations, but also cultural centres and research institutes about women — as well as the creation of numerous organs of democratic representation concerned with problems of daily life, consumption, education and upbringing, price and wage policies.
We need consumers' organizations that can enforce the conformity of products to ecological needs and autonomous associations of parents that can influence the content of what is taught and educational methods. And we need a mass of basic initiatives and self-organized groups that can act directly in the country. It is this latter that is perhaps the most urgent. *
...
real socialist alternative, which can justify the effort of tying oneself down? What
"Careers for Women"
future can we offer in such a catastrophic social situation, what perspectives are worth the effort of staying here?
Do you want us, perhaps, to join up with the gentlemen of Bonn, and replace the
FEMINIST THEMES have begun to be raised in debates in the dictatorship of the Politburo with that of official institutions in the USSR and in the official press. The the Chancellor's office?
following article is from the February 15 issue of Pravda, the
From the point of view of women, reunification would mean three steps backorgan of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The wards. In summary form these would introduction seems to be by the Pravda editors.
mean: the return of women to the home.
We would have to fight once more for the right to work, for a place for our children in
N. ZAKHAROVA and N. RIMASHEVSKAYA a kindergarten, and for canteens. That would be the same as selling off hard-won rights instead of going onto a new stage.
Women have no country to lose; they have a world to win. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to enhance the diversity of our ways of life, our individual differences, our aspirations and demands, in the framework of a renewal of Socialism. We must raise up our women's movement to the level that the times demand. We must join up with the left forces in Europe and speak out for a multicultural society, in which everybody can live in their own way, according to their national, cultural and social specificities. We must be vigilant that no one in our country is excluded because of their origins, handicaps or, simply, difference.
Let us create conditions for moving towards relations of solidarity between men and women, between parents and children, between young and old, between the sick and the well....
5. A radical quota policy, that is to say he immediate feminization of half of the mportant positions in society, is the condiion for real democratization. Quotas and emocratization are inseparable condions for political renewal. Certainly, the women question" presents the majority of rganizations and political parties with a roblem, but it is not always posed public-
. That is why we need our own political rganization, a movement that unites and ets in such a way as to ensure that the
12223
W E have to try to assure
- it was remarked at the Nineteenth All-union Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - that the situation is really changed, so that a broad road is opened up for women into the leading bodies at every level, so that questions directly affecting women's interests are not decided without their participation and without their opinions having a determining weight. The correct conclusion that we draw is that the question of "careors for women" deserves the attention of many all-union and republic authorities, and requires a scientific approach, in other words, a complex action program. A TYPICAL situation. An institute for raising the level of skills of supervisory personnel. Only men in the auditorium. They represent various ages, professions and nationalities. We talked with them about the position of women today. They were all of the same opinion. Emancipation had its negative side. Women are forced to bear a double burden. How can this acute problem be solved?
Many of them think that men's wages should be raised as much as possible, so as to ease the burden of mothers in production. By attracting women in large numbers into work outside the home, we supposedly only lose - families break down, children are badly educated, the "quality" of the future generations is declining. Is that the way it is?
A radical change in the position of women and wide acceptance of the principle of their equality with men in all areas of life is a feature of the twentieth century. Economic and social progress is impossible without including the "weaker sex," which represents half of the spiritual and intellectual potential of humanity, in all spheres However, there is no real equality in the situations of men and women. This is one of the most contradictory social problems today. Let us look back to the first decrees of Soviet power. They established equality of political and civil rights and created the conditions for social and spiritual liberation. We were the most progressive coun try. Women began to be incorporated rapidly into production. In a short time, we achieved one of the highest percentages of women at work in the world. Today more in the eking worsening 11 than 90% involved in the economy, representing
USSR
QUEEN OF
THE HOUSE
practically half of all workers.
However, in the notorious chase after numbers, the qualitative aspects of women's employment were overlooked. Where and at what are women working? They are "concentrated" in the feminized industries, where wages are 25% to 30% lower than average. Men eagerly turn over the hard physical labor to them. About 4 million women are working in conditions that violate the labor code. Night shifts are especially for them. Some 3.8 million women work nights.
In general, women's jobs are "horizontal," that is without prospects for promotion. Generally, the held by men.
Few women in supervisory roles
Among the supervisory personnel of plants and production units, as well as among chief engineers and their deputies, women make up only 12%. They represent 14% of heads of workshops and their deputies. Even in those industries where they represent a majority of the workers, there are few in supervisory roles. In light industry, it is 31%; in textiles, 21%, and in the food industry only 14%.
There are only a few individual women in the party and soviet leading bodies. A deputy premier. Until recently, the pro International Viewpoint #180 • March 12, 1990 portion of women in the soviets was kept high artificially by means of a quota. In the elections for the Congress of People's
Deputies, the quola was partially removed
(deputies from the women's councils got
75 seats).
This led to a fall in the perof centage women in the highest legislative body from 33% to
15.6%. In the elections for the local
Soviets, it is expected that there will be an even lower percentage of women deputies.
Of course, there are objective reasons for these phenomena — less professional preparation, a double burden of work and interruptions of work to bear children. But the main factor is the outdated stereotype of the role and destiny of women, of their capacities, of their place in
A patriarchal notion survives in our society that consigns women to home," and the role of active participants in society to men. It is not considered that women are attracted to work as an area for fulfilling themselves. We close our eyes to the fact that the percentage of women who would be content not to work, even under conditions of full material prosperity, is small and declining with the advance of education.
Is it not time for all of us to consider whether, in returning women primarily to the home, freeing them in a way from their double burden, we are not in fact trying to fill some gaps in the development of our social infrastructure, to make a link between some negative social processes with an orientation of women toward work outside the home? It is no secret that many families do not have proper housing and that public services are on a low level. As regards the quality of the work of the institutions for children, of the shops and health facilities, we have simply gotten sick of reading about this in the press.
So, women in the home is supposed to be the panace for all ills. But they cannot turn the wheel of history back. The negative phenomena in our life — the weakening of family ties, drug addiction, the growth of juvenile delinquency, abandoned old people - are not the result of any natural separation of the functions of men and women but a testimony of the transition in our age from patriarchal relations to egalitarian ones based on freedom of choice. There is only one solution for this — to offer the possibility for the latter relations to develop rather than try to thwart them.
And in the meantime, we have no statistics showing the dynamic of change, the employment of women or the increase in their skills. How many of them are on the list of qualified personnel in the enterprises? There is no answer to that question. Preference in promotion is always given to men.
However, practical experience shows that women cope no worse than men with the responsibilities of supervisors. The only perceptible difference is in the style of leadership. And despite the preference given to supervisors who fit the male stereotype, no one has been able to demonstrate its superiority. This style, by the way, is rooted in the period characterized by commandist and administrative voluntarist methods. In the conditions of such competition, women seeking to take leading responsibilities had to have purely masculine qualities.
Laying track and tarring
You hear the view that a career is incompatible with femininity. This goes hand in hand with the stereotypes about the roles of men and women, about social
But is femininity compatible with laying railway track or tarring roads? Or are we nostalgic for the fine ladies of the second half of the eighteenth century? Then why do we waste so much resources on educating women and take pride in the fact tha the rise of the educational level of womer is faster than that of the stronger sex?' And if women achieve professional suc cess, that is more often explained by luc than by their capacities.
The conflict between family and jo responsibilities tends not to be taken int consideration. More precisely, this prol lem is given an exclusively "feminin character. The solutions go in the dire tion of creating favorable conditions f their meeting both types of responsibilit! And what do the men do, just sta aside? The way it happens is that the ba: responsibility for family affairs is put. wives. But psychologists say that t involvement of men in the family enrich marriage and has a good influence on t children. Today, for some reason, nothi is said about the feminization of ch
rearing.
Of course, mothers feel the "double burden" more strongly and are less career oriented. But women without children are often accused of not wanting to fulfill their "natural destiny."
Men have a considerable influence on women's professional orientation. Women are to an extent dependent on their willingness to help with the household tasks. However, the main factor is not so much men sharing in the work, but how tolerant an attitude they take to their wives' professional successes.
When women achieve their goals and become leaders, they often stress their husband's helping role. But if women completely free their husbands from household cares, the men do not appreciate this as one of the reasons for their being able to pursue a career.
Yes, many women are not career oriented. Day-to-day cares and family responsibilities get in the way. But this precisely is often considered one of the basic reasons for the under-representation of women at various levels of administration. No! Women repress their desire to grow because they fear that in the present conditions this will only complicate their lives.
"A citizeness in a big desk chair"
We should remember the psychological barrier also. The skepticism that exists about women's capacities for leadership also engenders in them an underestimation of their capacities, a lack of confidence in
INTRODUCTION
THE following article, translated from issue no. 1-2/1990 of the jourmal Ost-West Gegen informationen, published in Graz in Austria, gives a historical overview of the development and problems of the feminist movement in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. Slovenia, with some 2 million Inhabitants, is the most western and most economically developed
Republic of the Yugoslav Federation. In the last decade independent groups of all kinds, including feminist groups, have sprung up there, with the toleration of the local Communist Party. At the same time, Slovenia has found itself under increasing pressure from the powerful Serb-centralist wave unleashed by Serb CP leader and nationalist demagogue Slobodan
Milosevic, a wave which has had disastrous effects in the majori
Albanian province of Kosovo.
Our readers should be aware that the editors of /V would not use the term "socialism" to describe the system that has existed in Yugosloavia since the Second World War.
USSR / YUGOSLAVIA