Unemployed chemical engineer

You are 44 years old, a former member of the SED from Dresden and unemployed. You were fired from your job as manager of a small electronics company after your firm imported a flashy male manager from the West. The explanation for this was that your firm wanted to stay a step ahead of liquidation by the Treuhand and privatize all on its own. After a performance review by a team of Western consultants, it was decided that you lacked computer skills and had shown a tendency to resist the changes that would have to be made by a member of the managing team that was fit to lead the company to be competitive in a free market economy.

You have always worked very, very hard and cannot understand why you've been fired (see women's situation in East Germany). The Western consultants retained a number of male employees you could work circles around. When you protested at your performance review, one of the consultants remarked nonchalantly, "What are you worried about? Your husband still has a job--he can take care of you." Even before this crass remark, it was not easy to overlook the fact that the company was recreating itself with a leadership which was almost exclusively male.

The GDR may have been a totalitarian state, but this whole experience has taught you that it was a much better place for women who wanted to work outside the home (see: Wage and Price Policy in East Germany). You know a number of women who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs, but are straining under a lack of affordable child care, something that was always available and affordable in the GDR. What's more, there is even talk of abolishing abortion on demand in the East in favor of the Western law, which is much more restrictive.

As for your feelings about unification, you think it has proceeded entirely too quickly and in a fashion which is more akin to annexation than unification. The powers who determined the course of unification pulled a cruel trick, essentially reconstituting political boundaries from the 1930s and letting them join the existing Federal Republic one by one, under an obscure provision written into the Basic Law after World War II. You also think that the government and the people in the West are shirking an important responsibility. Specifically, there is a clause in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic which states: "This Basic Law will become invalid on the day that a unified German parliament meets." Unification, then, should bring about a rewriting of the constitutional basis of the Federal Republic. Well, the time for this change is nearly over and no one in power shows any signs that they think of unification as anything but the annexation of five new states into the existing political order.

On the side, though, you figure that as long as unification is going to take place, it might as well be paid for by the rich Westerners. It was their idea, and they can certainly afford it!

Your goal is to make sure that the voice of women like yourself is heard by those in charge of formulating unification policy. You also seek to add your voice to those protesting the massive social costs of unification: mass layoffs (you need a job), insecurity, degrading of the standard of living. Specifically, you will fight for the continued right to choose abortion; there is no going back in history! Fight for continued state-supported child care; you don't want to see women sent back to be housewives. Find allies from both East and West Germany that will support your goals.