Gender and German Unification

Abstract

This article examines how past and present labor market policies and family policies have interacted to shape labor market opportunities for women from the former German Democratic Republic since the uni fication of Germany and why German social and economic policies have failed to protect unemployed east German women and their families from economic hardship since unification. It challenges the contention that these differences are inevitable, natural consequences of moving from a state-controlled economy to a market economy.