ingest cdrApp 2017-07-05T20:22:47.065Z b743dd6f-fb31-445f-b2b9-a0aa4f8b7562 modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-05T20:50:47.791Z Setting exclusive relation modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-05T20:50:55.796Z Setting exclusive relation addDatastream MD_TECHNICAL fedoraAdmin 2017-07-05T20:51:03.624Z Adding technical metadata derived by FITS modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-05T20:51:19.430Z Setting exclusive relation addDatastream MD_FULL_TEXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-05T20:51:28.552Z Adding full text metadata extracted by Apache Tika modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT fedoraAdmin 2017-07-05T20:51:44.225Z Setting exclusive relation modifyDatastreamByValue RELS-EXT cdrApp 2017-07-06T11:38:53.007Z Setting exclusive relation modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-01-25T06:33:07.528Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-01-27T06:59:56.243Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-03-14T03:21:35.453Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-05-17T15:07:11.543Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-07-11T01:46:40.895Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-07-17T22:00:40.068Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-08-08T21:09:16.226Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-08-15T18:19:05.882Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-09-21T18:42:30.140Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-09-26T22:01:30.218Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2018-10-11T22:33:39.739Z modifyDatastreamByValue MD_DESCRIPTIVE cdrApp 2019-03-20T16:18:15.668Z Alexandria Ruble Author Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. Spring 2017 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. Spring 2017 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. Spring 2017 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017-05 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Hugo Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Hugo Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Degree granting institution Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War; Entanglement history; Equal rights; Family law; Postwar Germany; Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Hugo Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Degree granting institution Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences "Equal but not the Same": The Struggle for "Gleichberechtigung" and the Reform of Marriage and Family Law in East and West Germany, 1945-1968 This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War, Entanglement history, Equal rights, Family law, Postwar Germany, Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution History Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Hugo Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Alexandria Ruble Creator Department of History College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation explores the interplay of political, social, and economic factors that first prevented and later led, despite all resistance, to the reform of family law in East and West Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. After 1945, Germans inherited a Civil Code that dated back to 1900 and had designated women as second-class citizens in marriage, parental rights, and marital property. In the postwar period, in the context of the founding of the East and West German states and the rising Cold War, female activists in both Germanys revived the old feminist goal of reforming civil law, but faced fierce resistance from Protestant and Catholics. After much struggle, legislators in both states replaced the old law with two new, competing versions that purported to expand women’s rights in marital and familial matters. I argue that the East-West German competition in the Cold War provided the momentum to finally accomplish the long-desired reforms. In both states, allusions to the other Germany’s treatment of women marked political discourse and were a key factor in all negotiations and decisions on family policies. The project demonstrates that gender and the family were important markers of difference between the two Germanys and, more broadly, battlegrounds of the Cold War. This dissertation widens scholarly understandings of gender and the family in the two Germanys and Central Europe in two crucial ways. First, while scholars have previously conceived of women’s roles in East and West Germany as largely dissimilar, this project shows how family law linked and complicated the bond between the two states. At the same time, this study acknowledges the key differences between the East and West that ultimately set the two states on divergent paths regarding family law and gender roles. Second, this project challenges current understandings of gender, politics, and citizenship in the 1950s by showing that female activism in East and West Germany reemerged after the end of the Second World War, meaning that feminism was alive and well long before the 1970s. 2017 European history Gender studies Women's studies Cold War; Entanglement history; Equal rights; Family law; Postwar Germany; Women's rights eng Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School Degree granting institution Karen Hagemann Thesis advisor Konrad Hugo Jarausch Thesis advisor Donald Reid Thesis advisor Susan Pennybacker Thesis advisor Katherine Turk Thesis advisor text 2017-05 Ruble_unc_0153D_16826.pdf uuid:cb541357-dc75-41fd-bfaa-41860a7ab227 2019-07-05T00:00:00 2017-04-23T14:53:44Z proquest application/pdf 5949254 yes