The Impact of Population Policies on Women in Eastern Europe: The German Democratic Republic

Abstract

Most of the literature on family policy in Eastern Europe has focused on the impact of population policies on birth rates and fertility rates.2 However important this question may be, it narrows unnecessarily the analysis of the impact of family policy. Feminist theory suggests that this restrictive approach reflects a patriarchal bias which sees women only as instruments in achieving optimal growth rates. In this paper I develop a broader economic approach which includes the impact of family policy on women’s economic position in society, and, in addition, considers the impact of factors not usually considered part of family policy, including housing policy and male/female wage differentials. This analysis is within the context of Eastern European family policies in general but focuses chiefly on the German Democratic Republic.