The representation of women’s interests in parliaments in the East and West of Germany – Still any evidence of a socialist societal transformation?

Socialist states take pride in their commitment to gender equality, but do socialist equality policies lead to long-term transformations of gender roles in politics? Unified Germany provides an excellent case to address this question. In the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), women surpassed the 30% representation threshold in the Volkskammer more than a decade before the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) reached this level in the Bundestag. Although women in the GDR's parliament were concentrated in traditionally feminine policy areas, they also occupied token positions in masculine domains. Moreover, societal gender norms differed markedly: continuous full-time employment was common for women in the socialist East, whereas in the West it remained less widespread. This study investigates whether the GDR’s gender equality legacy generated enduring effects on women’s political representation in unified Germany. I compare how women and men MPs engage in substantive representation of women in Eastern and Western German state parliaments between 1990 and 2021. Methodologically, the analysis draws on quantitative content analysis of plenary debates and written and oral parliamentary questions. The findings shed light on the extent to which a socialist gender-equality legacy has produced durable transformations in political gender roles and practices within a democratic context as well as on the urge for long-term gender-equality policies in contrast to short-term measures.