Introduction

The pre-unification Federal Republic of Germany had the dubious reputation of being arguably one of the most gendered societies within the European Union (then the Europe Economic Community). Neither in its economy nor in its political culture and institutional makeup had the constitutional right to equality been realised. In the world of employment, for example, the vast majority of women dropped out of the workforce for several years to enable them to become the primary caregivers in the family, resulting in a severe narrowing of their career horizons once they decided to re-enter the labour market. Working mothers with small children were, in particular, widely regarded as neglecting their children and, therefore, as a threat to social stability. The few women who, by the 1980s, had risen to leading positions in politics and business were often perceived as having done so at the expense of their private lives. In addition, West German society still generally thought that senior women managers were a danger to conventional notions of female identity as well as the androcentric, corporate culture in which they had achieved success.

Unification initially seemed to pose a challenge to the hegemonic, masculine culture in West Germany. East German women had possessed a strong voice during the political transformation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989/90. This derived from their ideological and economic strength and the sheer number of political activists.