The intricate geographies of gender ideologies in Germany
Highlights
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- The attitudinal dimension of gender ideologies is more moderate in the eastern federal states of Germany.
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- The behavioral dimension of gender ideologies does not differ between eastern and western states of Germany.
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- For the western urbanized federal states a rural ideology of gender conservatism is crucial.
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- In the western part an imagined rurality as a structure of feeling is vital.
Abstract
Due
to Germany’s recent history, the country represents a case that is
unparalleled worldwide for regional differentiations of gender
ideologies. The 40-year separation into one capitalist and one socialist
state until 1990 is reflected in different wage-work policies toward
women in the former GDR and FRG, which are mirrored by more conservative
gender role attitudes in the western federal states and more liberal
attitudes in the eastern federal states. Furthermore, this order is
destabilized by an urban/rural differentiation that becomes apparent in
an urbanized western part and a rural and sparsely populated eastern
part. In international rural studies, such pastoral regions are coupled
with a rural ideology of gender conservatism. The paper analyzes the
present regional differentiation of gender ideologies in Germany with
respect to this supposed intersection between socialist wage-work
policies of including women in the labor force and conservative rural
ideologies in the East and conservative male breadwinner policies and
liberal urban ideologies in the West. The findings show, first, that the
attitudinal dimension of gender ideologies is more moderate in the eastern federal states but that the behavioral
dimension of work in the household is not. Second, for the urbanized
western federal states, a rural ideology of gender conservatism is
crucial, and it expresses itself in an imagined rurality. In the western
federal states the self-description of the place of residence as rural
has a significant effect on gender ideologies. Clearly, beyond the
official categorization of the place of domicile as urban, suburban, or
rural, only the imagining of rural living is able to predict
conservative gender ideologies in the western part of Germany. Third, in
terms of imagined rurality, the finding is interpreted as a structure
of feeling that induces a transition of social experiences and attitudes
from generation to generation and explains the still existing gap
between the eastern and the western parts of Germany.
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Keywords
- Gender ideologies;
- Rural studies;
- Germany;
- Imagined rurality;
- Structure of feelings
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