How women's rights evolved in Germany – DW – 03/08/2023 (2024)

FAQs

What was the women's rights movement in Germany? ›

Feminism in Germany as a modern movement began during the Wilhelmine period (1888–1918) with individual women and women's rights groups pressuring a range of traditional institutions, from universities to government, to open their doors to women. This movement culminated in women's suffrage in 1919.

Progress in gender equality. With 70.8 points out of 100, Germany ranks 11th in the EU on the Gender Equality Index.

The German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany adopted in 1949, officially granted equal rights to women and men, but it has been a long fight for women to obtain actual recognition, and the struggle for gender equality is pursued to this day.

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest.

Many happened in the US, including the march on Washington in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978, and the Million Women March, a movement of African American women which took place in Philadelphia in 1997.

Traditional gender roles persist in Germany today. This is particularly true outside of urban areas, where women still bear the brunt of housework, childcare and other unpaid labor. Nevertheless, women are increasingly present in positions of power and authority.

The agency said structural reasons could have also contributed to the gap. It said women are more likely than men to work in sectors and professions that pay less. "They are also more frequently employed part-time or in marginal employment than men, which is also associated with lower average gross hourly earnings."

In 2023, the gender pay gap in Germany was around 18 percent.

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Sweden as well as Germany and the Netherlands were the nations offering full equal rights for men and women, at least from a legal perspective.

What is the gender law in Germany? ›

Now over-18s can change to male, female or diverse, a third gender option that already exists under German law. Three months on from a request for such a change, applicants will then have to appear at a registry office in person. You can also request that no details regarding your gender are registered at all.

Many worry that screening embryos pre-implantation, during fertility treatments, opens the door to gender selection and designer babies. But a German court on Tuesday decided to allow the practice.

The Woman Suffrage Amendment, originally written by Susan B. Anthony and introduced in Congress in 1878, is passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is then sent to the states for ratification. Wisconsin and Illinois are the first states to ratify.

These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage. But across the globe many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender.

In July 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY. The Seneca Falls Convention produced a list of demands called the Declaration of Sentiments.

At the beginning of the 1980's, the German Sinti and Roma civil rights' movements were fighting for recognition, for the payment of compensation, for dignified forms of remembrance of the Nazi genocide against these minorities, and for the elimination of continuing discrimination.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, women and women's organizations not only worked to gain the right to vote, they also worked for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms. Between 1880 and 1910, the number of women employed in the United States increased from 2.6 million to 7.8 million.

The Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht (German Union for Women's Suffrage) was a German women's organization for women's suffrage, active between 1902 and 1919.

Women took on new roles in the work force, notably in war production and agriculture. In 1914, the German armaments producer Krupp employed almost no women. By 1917, women made up nearly 30 percent of its 175,000 workers and a nationwide total of nearly 1.4 million German women were employed in the war labor force.