68 FRANK BÖSCH AND JENS GIESEKE
they were not picked up by the GDR media. Yet this did not prevent the
Stasi from keeping tabs on these activists. Regardless of these aspects,
these developments signifi cantly infl uenced the understanding of politics
among the so-called “1989ers” at the local level, reappearing in the form
of forums for dialog and round table discussions.^85
In terms of the women’s rights movement, however, the diff erences
between East and West Germany were even greater. In the 1970s, politi-
cal power still rested fi rmly in the hands of men in the FRG. At the most,
only 7 percent of the seats in the Bundestag were occupied by women.
Likewise, only one woman belonged to the cabinets of Brandt and
Schmidt, as the minister for family aff airs. The situation in the East was
quite similar, despite the fact that the GDR claimed that it had achieved
the epitome of equality given its high percentage of female employment.
The pivotal positions of power, however, were all held by men. In the
West, a variety of feminist groups emerged within the Left in the 1970s
who protested women’s exclusion within their own political camp. They
were relatively successful in their endeavors, especially in a mid- to long-
term perspective. Some of their achievements included the establishment
of women’s houses and female quotas, as well as increased awareness
for sexual discrimination. Comparable groups or movements were barely
existent within the GDR, only appearing within the context of the peace
movement or occasionally under the auspices of the churches. The SED,
however, even tried position itself as a role model at the offi cial con-
gresses of the international women’s movement in the 1970s.^86
Nonetheless, the GDR lacked a visible women’s emancipation move-
ment, perhaps because the majority of women perceived of themselves
as equals. Yet, the high rate of female employment by no means protected
women against a gendered wage gap, the unequal distribution of house-
work, and clearly demarcated gender roles.^87 All the eff orts made to for-
mulate a fundamental critique of gender relations, such as the foundation
of an independent women’s association in 1989 by a few reformist-social-
ist women’s studies scholars, proved to be short-lived.^88 However, literary
feminism did have a social impact, represented by works such as Maxie
Wander’s Guten Morgen, Du Schöne (Good Morning, Beautiful) and es-
pecially Christa Wolf’s Kassandra. These works called for an individual-
istic search for women’s identities and roles outside the boundaries of
collectivism.^89
On the whole, the protest movements did spark debates over the use of
state and social violence in both East and West Germany. Indeed, violence
had been a key issue discussed within leftist circles in West Germany
ever since the protests of 1968.^90 In the 1970s, terrorism sharpened and
complicated these debates as the West German state appeared to have