Recommend Gender Field with airSlate SignNow

Recommend gender field

[Music] women were at the front and center of the building and maintenance of the socialist system in the gdr from 1945. it was the truman flowen who swept away the physical scars of nazism the rubble and destroyed cities and then began the process of a socialist reconstruction it was these women that would go on to assert their legal right to gender equality in the founding constitution of the gdr in 1949 but these were not just to be empty words used by propagandists or like we see in the west materially the gdr radically transformed how we see gender roles in a modern context serving as a great lesson in what can be achieved in this field when the goal is socialist progressivism firstly to link with the last few videos it's important to say just how integrated women were in the public sphere attitude has shifted from the 1950s where a woman's only aspiration was to be married to the 1980s where work was the norm and women comprised half of the workforce the gender pay gap was abolished immediately and women won the freedom to train specialise and develop their careers through free education compared us to the west where until 1976 a woman could not freely work if it interfered with her so-called domestic jewish essentially meaning that half of women in west germany or the frg were forced to be housewives back to the gdr though women rose to prominent positions as more than fifty percent of judges were women compared to only six percent in the west one third of women were in technical professions and one in nine mares were women there being only 12 women mares in west germany this shows that gender equality was not just a lofty ideal but was properly implemented to better the lives of ordinary working class east germans women were also democratically represented as workers by the sed and trade union blocks in the false camera but also as women themselves through the democratic german women's league with a membership of 1.5 million as described in the first video on the gdr's democracy this meant that women's issues and interests were always guaranteed to be heard in debates and the making of law which cannot be said for western governments which still struggle with gender representation to this day however there was a major flaw in that although women could easily rise to skilled and professional jobs there still existed a similar class even to that in the west for the highest positions of authority at work and in government for example there was only one female minister that beat margot hanukkah for the ministry of education and also wife of ericonica for chairs of agricultural cooperatives only 2.8 percent were women and directors of vebs were primarily the reserve of men except in industries such as textiles although in line with the standard standards of the time we as socialists in the present should aspire to greater efforts in the field of gender equality building up from the examples of history and of current socialist states such as cuba vietnam and laos to ensure equal opportunity for all and a more representative leadership of our class life in the private sphere was also very different in the gdr to what we see under capitalism women had much greater autonomy in their relationships and sex lives for example divorce was made free and easily accessible from 1950 rather than the bureaucratic mess that we see today this gave women the freedom to leave relationships on their own terms and there was no legal or societal stigma towards single mothers free child care meant it was entirely viable to raise a family alone and maintain a fulfilling career thus ensuring women's economic independence from men 1972 was also a huge step forward for women's rights abortion was made legal and free of charge as well as an expansion of contraception making it free and easy to access ensuring that partners had complete control over when they wanted to have a child the frg on the other hand did not legalise abortion until 1976 and it still incurred charges in addition to this there was suitable support for would-be parents if they did decide to have a baby maternity leave was bumped up from 14 to 18 weeks and again to 26 weeks in 1976 and women received 90 percent of their wage paid parents were also gifted roughly a month's wage when their child was born to cover any associated costs and the amount grew depending on how many children there were in the family already in addition to this if a child fell ill parents were entitled to full pay for four weeks per year to care for them this meant that no family was left to struggle to make ends meet these measures meant women were more confident in raising a family demonstrating the birth rate remaining healthy throughout the life of the gdr whereas the west and modern germany suffer from problems of an aging population because of the dire birth rate um content warning for sex skips at a time that's on screen if you don't feel comfortable with it granted this isn't the best way to analyze women's liberation but it's an interesting bit of information that i have to include in the video and it's the results of several surveys recorded in the book why women have better sex under socialism by kristin godsey the title says it all but the first study run by a magazine in hamburg west german so you can't accuse me of any bias here found that 80 of each german women always achieved orgasm during sex whereas only 63 did in the west a second survey asked german students if they felt happy after sex 82 agreed in the east whereas only 52 percent did in the west to reverse this statistic 18 of each germans and 48 of west germans did not enjoy sex in the cold war context and one of increased nuclear tensions west german media could not stand being ousted as worse than the gdr in any way and this actually came to be known in the media as the great orgasm war i'm not joking there there's more to this though than the meme of a childish german it has its roots in the gender roles and norms of german of the german states as described above women in the gdr simply had greater economic freedom and freedom of choice when it came to partners than in the west there was also less pressure from mass advertising on women to conform to certain gender norms and as everyone had their needs met an each german man couldn't simply pay his way to a woman's heart a slight sidetrack but hopefully one that highlights the effects of women's emancipation on day-to-day life and offers an odd but direct comparison to the west on the other hand the road to lgbtq plus liberation was nowhere near as straightforward as that of gender equality this had to be fought for by active struggle unfortunately the third reich decimated the thriving gay culture at the weimar republic and set gay rights back in germany for decades to their shame both germany's continued the nazi article with the prohibited homosexuality this should obviously be condemned despite it being the prevailing idea at the time however the gdr slowly began measures to reform this beginning with criminal law reform in 1957 which made it exceptionally uncommon to be penalized to be lgbtq plus although notably it was still illegal this was finally amended in 1968 when homosexual homosexuality was finally made legal this also inspired activists in the west which was still persecuting lgbtq plus people up until 1994 to push for minor legalization on their own side a year later arguing that if one germany could do it why couldn't the other however there still existed a homophobic culture in the gdr for quite some time after this homosexuality was regarded as anti-socialist and consent laws were not equal as one had to be 18 to consent whereas the age of consent for heterosexuals was 14. it might be said the lgbtq plus people were tolerated in the gdr rather than accepted at this point this was to change only by the actions of the lgbtq plus community itself the homosexual interest group berlin was founded in the early seventies by young workers and students with the aim of raising awareness and gave his ability in public life rather than just in the private sphere and in the number of gay bars in a major cities in the gdr it was their actions protests and occupations influenced by western inspired protest tactics that led to the universal age of consent law in 1987 ensuring legal equality for lgbtq plus people with this decision by the state to integrate the lgbtq plus community there was a mass education campaign to combat prejudice in the wider public and a huge growth of a cultural movement to normalize gay culture the late 80s saw an upsurge in our depicting gay relationships and was publicly displayed and cooked in government spaces such as the palace of the republic in berlin the centre of government films are also released such as the other love in 1988 and coming out the la the latter actually been created by a gay director and was due to be released on the day that the wall fell this was a brief description of lgbtq plus rights in the gdr and germany as a whole and for a more in-depth look i would strongly recommend twink revolutions video on it galag archipelago germany a link will be in the description and it covers the entirety of the 20th century and goes into far more detail than i can here but i hope this helps to dispel the myth that reform and protest was actually prohibited in the gdr and highlights the key point the lgbtq plus liberation cannot be a gift given from on high but must be won by the active struggle of the community and its allies under a socialist leadership it was by the direct action and the state's willingness to initiate reform that asserted the gdr as one of the most progressive of the socialist states if not the wider world as it was decades ahead of many of the western powers unfortunately german reunification saw a decimation of this social progress on a mass scale it was women that brought the ball the brunt of the wave of unemployment following the west's privatize and de-industrialized policy through detroit hand traditional gender roles were reasserted as the loss of a comprehensive system of free child care led to most women resigning to a life in the private sphere at home as housewives the lgbtq plus community also saw a return to a homophobic culture in the new germany and did not obtain their lost rights and equal consent laws and even decriminalization until 1994 while there still remained an uphill battle on gay marriage and acceptance in popular media so what can we as socialists learn from this history today the experience of the gdr tells us that socialism is nothing without the emancipation and empowerment of women and minorities and this liberation can not occur without socialism any future social estate must represent the they must represent the interest of the working class in its entirety and encourage not just tolerance but active acceptance of all identity and all identities and fight to ensure the destruction of inequality in our society that has been so carefully fostered by the capitalists and the imperialists to prevent our rule as a class only socialism can secure economic liberty for us all and this is accomplished by women and the lgbtq plus community being the vanguard of our class and the fight for a socialist future i'd like to thank you for watching and just a little announcement um i do now actually have a patreon as well i have sold out to the capitalist powers that be um this is just to help me get some more equipment for the channel hopefully get a better microphone some better editing software and also to fund um the research so i can put much more uh much more knowledge and much more effort into the videos and hopefully give you a more holistic view of life in the gdr as well as other topics i will be covering as i've described earlier so there is a link in the description for my patreon um obviously only contribute if you can there's no need to i'm never gonna put any content behind a paywall as i believe that education should be free and i would like to think this is some kind of education um so yeah please do contribute if you can but obviously if you can't i completely understand um and there's there's no need to just watching the video liking sharing subscribing is more than enough uh but with that said i would like to thank uh my first patron and that is beriman so thank you very much for your patronage and um i really appreciate it so thank you for watching um hopefully there'll be more videos coming up soon i've just been quite busy when it comes to uni with working on the dissertation and the likes of that it's a little bit tough right now during the pandemic but i hope everyone's doing okay and i'll catch you the next one you