Feminism in Former East Germany

There is a nascent women’s movement in Eastern Europe, different from that in the West. Where the women’s movement in the West was built in a milieu of relative economic plenty, feminism in the East is being built in a milieu of massive unemployment and the loss of abortion rights, day care, and other social entitlements.

In the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) women began meeting in their homes to discuss feminism almost ten years before the “Wende,” the political transformation of fall 1989. Some groups were formed under the auspices of the church, including lesbian groups, and in opposition proposals made in 1982 to draft women into the army. Others, like “Women against ViolenceR...