ABSTRACT
East German women, as numerous empirical studies attested to in the meantime, adhered to their previous outlook on life to an astounding degree. These facts have led to a change of perspective in sociological research, especially in the field of so-called transformation research. Unemployment in the new Lander has up to now meant unemployment in relation to the achieved qualification structure of the German Democratic Republic—“unemployment of citizens with completed professional or technical training.” The crisis symptoms which are observable in all western industrial countries through “globalization” apply completely to the Federal Republic of Germany. These are presently felt even more strongly in the new Lander than in the old. This is rather counter-productive for East German women’s continued adherence to their “own ideas”. East German women are characterized in a common slogan as the “losers of German unification.”
