ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present a detailed synthesis of existing research on economic gender equality in East Germany before and after reunification, and to a lesser extent, a comparison between East and West Germany. It focuses on a comparison of different dimensions of economic gender equality. The chapter looks at labor force participation, unemployment and employment, working time, the gender wage gap, occupational sex segregation, the division of unpaid work at home, and the normative support for women's and mothers' employment, both in the late 1980s and around 2014, the most recent data available. East Germany represents a special case among the former state socialist societies due to its particular history of separation and reunification. In 1989, the industrial structure of East Germany resembled that present in West Germany in the mid-1960s, with a large proportion of agricultural and manufacturing jobs.
