20th Century Roles of Men and Women

20th Century Roles of Men and Women in Society
By: Tom Monson, Miranda Scherer, Robert Niehoff, Matt Dehn,
Tim Cox, Angela Balcome, Sarsha Vang, Monica Riebe, Brett Clark- Hedlof
Military Roles
Men
All men age 18-23 were obligated to go through a nine month training before going into war
There are approximately 200,000 soldiers that are considered professional and 300,000 that are more civilian, but are on reserve and are able to become active at any given time
Some men were forced into war through guilt or shame of their family and friends during WWI and WWII
All major German military and political leaders were men
Women
During WWII, Hitler stated that women’s role in German society during the war was summed up and circumscribed by the three "K" words: Kirche, Kinder and Küche. (church, children and cooking)
Also, women were meant to bear “Aryan” children and were taught to do so through aggressive propaganda.
In 1975, German women were sought out to join the military
Political Roles
1919- Women receive the right to vote
1949- Basic Law made men and women equal
1977- Women gain right to equality in marriage.
Domestic Roles
In WWII Women took on the more traditional roles that men had filled.
During WWII Women tended to the sick and wounded, buried the dead, cleared the streets of rubble and ruins and salvaged what they could.
Domestic Roles in East/West Germany
West Germany
Basic Law (1949) declared men and women equal
After WWII women became homemakers and mothers again
In the early 1980s women qualified for admission in colleges/universities
East Germany
1975 women were the majority of secondary school graduates
Women remained working
East Germany relied on women due to the number of males fleeing to West Germany
Business Roles
Primarily male driven
Germany’s Chancellor is a Woman, Angela Merkel
Deutsche Telekom was the first DAX (blue chip stock companies) company to pledge to raise the percentage of women at mid to high level management to 30 percent
Education Roles
Early 20th century: mostly males went to school with intentions of going to university.
Mid-1960s women accounted for nearly half of all secondary school graduates with intentions on studying at institutes of higher learning in the GDR.
1975 Women make up the majority of secondary school graduates.
Women in West Germany did not qualify for admission into universities until the early 1980's.
Sources
Sources http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa080601c.htm http://www.warandgender.com/wgwomwwi.htm http://www.mygermancity.com/german-military http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005205 http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/g-wm.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_roles_in_the_World_Wars http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/matahari.htm http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issues_in_Germany#Gender_roles_and_demographics http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,702895,00.html http://www.germanyandafrica.diplo.de/Vertretung/pretoria__dz/en/03__BD/New__women__managment.html