Gender Ideologies Now and Then: Comparing the German Democratic Republic with Contemporary East and West Germany

Leonie Kleinschrot , Federal Institute for Population Research
Felix Berth, German Youth Institute
Martin Bujard, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)

When describing the change in gender ideologies in Germany, the period of 40 years of division in a socialist East and capitalist West is often left out. This study examines which gender ideologies were found in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and which are present in East Germany today. It works out the congruence between policies and gender ideologies by also comparing today’s West and East Germany. Therefore, latent class analysis is applied on survey data collected by the GDR’s Central Institute of Youth Research in 1984 and the FReDA 2021 survey. The results show two patterns of egalitarianism in the GDR, one supporting gender equality in both the public and familial spheres, another endorsing gender equality in the public sphere, but holding more traditional attitudes towards the private sphere. And still in 2021, such heterogeneous gender ideologies can be found in East (and in West) Germany, besides widespread egalitarian gender ideologies. We conclude a high congruence between socialist gender policies and ideologies in the GDR and that this “cultural legacy” can still be found in contemporary East Germany as besides the widespread egalitarian gender ideology, in 2021 we (still) find a diversified belief pattern. But also in West Germany we would conclude a congruence between policies and ideologies, as there are two gender ideology patterns, which specifically support intrafamilial care for children and the vital role mothers play in here.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History