THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE 325
has also taken place in other European countries since the 1980s. In
neighboring countries, such as France and the Netherlands, it has mainly
been couples with university degrees who have opted not to marry, but
to have children.^152
What were the motors behind these changes? In West Germany, con-
temporary social scientists at the time focused on the role of women.
They claimed that women themselves had initiated changes in opinion,
thereby catapulting these issues onto the political agenda. Sociologists
have interpreted this process as a democratic and publicly negotiated
“emancipation ‘from below’” that accounted for its broad social accep-
tance. In the GDR, on the other hand, the initiative seems to have come
from male politicians who orchestrated an authoritarian and paternalistic
“emancipation from above.”^153 It was symbolized by the policy focus on
mothers, often referred to as Muttipolitik, of the 1970s. Although women’s
burdens were lightened to an extent, especially through the expansion of
childcare options, political decision-making largely reinforced traditional
roles, thereby hindering emancipation. Yet, it needs to be kept in mind
that women could also retreat to the private realm of the family, where
they had more room to maneuver as individuals.^154 A truly diff erentiated
look at daily lives in divided Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, however,
has yet to be written to the end.
Conclusion
Consumption and family are two aspects of life that have changed enor-
mously since the 1970s. The shifts in lifestyles outlined in this article de-
veloped parallel to each other in both East and West Germany. They were
not interwoven per se, but rather they evolved up to 1990 in an environ-
ment of the mutual awareness of what was happening on the other side of
the Wall—as part of a “shared but divided history” (Geteilte Geschichte).
At the same time, however, there were fundamental diff erences between
the Federal Republic and the GDR. Whereas a trend toward pluralization
appeared in both countries, the eff ects of this process varied in strength
due to the divergent social frameworks.
A strikingly dramatic shift occurred in consumer society in the FRG
during this period that could be measured quantitatively in sales fi gures,
but it was also refl ected in changing social perceptions. The GDR also
experienced a quantitative increase in private consumption, but it was
accompanied by the simultaneous expansion of social policy initiatives,
most especially the push to construct more apartment housing and ex-
pand family-related social services. The paradigm shift from the “modern