Gendered citizenship and women’s relationship to systems of social care: Investigating the GDR’s Frauenparadies (1971-1989)

McEwan, Anna (2024) Gendered citizenship and women’s relationship to systems of social care: Investigating the GDR’s Frauenparadies (1971-1989). PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic, GDR) closely related social care provision to what it meant to be a socialist citizen, leading historian Konrad Jarausch to characterise it as a ‘welfare dictatorship’. This thesis builds upon Jarausch by investigating how a specifically gendered citizenship for East German women was created by and experienced through the social care provision of the Erich Honecker period (1971-1989). My understanding of social care focusses on the areas of responsibility designated to the East German state women’s organisation, the Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands (Democratic Women’s League, DFD). Specifically, I concentrate on reproductive and maternal healthcare, as well as family and child care initiatives. By incorporating an interdisciplinary analysis that employs records from the DFD and the Ministerium für Gesundheitswesen (Ministry for Health) as well as film and television case studies and related primary material, this thesis considers the level of high politics as well as the grassroots to discover how women’s citizenship was practised in everyday life. The DFD played a central role as a propagator, implementer, and provider of social care policies for women. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the organisation served as a valuable agent in facilitating social care initiatives for women and played a significant role in the formation of East German women’s gendered citizenship.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on; D History General and Old World > DD Germany
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Supervisor's Name: Bracke, Professor Maud and Bradley, Professor Laura
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84690
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 13 Nov 2024 16:05
• Last Modified: 13 Nov 2024 16:05
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84690
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84690