There were only four female members of the Parliamentary Council that began drawing up the German Basic Law in 1948. This reflected attitudes at the time about the role of women, however. Despite the fact that women had taken care of their families during the Second World War and helped get the country back on its feet by clearing away the debris and rubble in the destroyed cities, the old distribution of roles was restored when the men returned. Women had to settle back into a patriarchal society in which they were not allowed either to open a bank account or to sign an employment contract, and in which the husband always had the final say on family matters.
This made it all the more important that women pushed for one historic sentence to be included in the Basic Law, which was proclaimed on 23 May 1949: “Men and women shall have equal rights.” Without Dr Elisabeth Selbert (SPD), Friederike Nadig (SPD), Helene Weber (CDU) and Helene Wessel (Centre Party), this crucial passage would not have been included. That said, they had to fight hard for their cause. The four of them were surrounded by 61 men who felt that other issues were more relevant. According to the minutes of their meetings, they tended to respond with “amusement” to so-called women’s topics.
What is more, the four women did not even agree amongst themselves on the right way forward at first. The initiative came from the lawyer Elisabeth Selbert. First she persuaded her fellow SPD party member Friederike Nadig and later the other two women, who originally would have been happy to leave the Weimar Constitution wording in place: “Men and women have the same fundamental civil rights and duties.”
Selbert’s motion was rejected several times. She responded by initiating a public protest, which resulted in mountains of post arriving in Bonn, where the Council was convening. This was something even the men couldn’t ignore – and in the end the equality principle was unanimously adopted. Selbert later talked of this being a “moment of glory” in her life. She was without doubt the most combative of the four women, who came from different political camps but ultimately found a common denominator.
Paving the way for change
These four women not only went down in history, they also paved the way for further reforms. These include the Equal Rights Act (adopted in 1957), the reform of Marriage and Family Law (1976), the Act on Equal Treatment at the Workplace (1980) and the extension of Article 3 in the Basic Law. Since 1994, it has additionally read: “The state shall promote the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and take steps to eliminate disadvantages that now exist.”
Equality in law has been achieved, though work is still underway to implement equal rights in everyday life - the proportion of women in leadership positions in politics and business is still not on a par with that of men, for instance. In the Bundestag too, only 31 percent of members are currently women. However, the situation could well be even less favourable if the goal of equality were not enshrined in the Basic Law. The continuous process of change is thanks in any case to four brave women who fought for their rights.
