Germany ranks higher than the USA in the gender gap closure, according to an October 2013 report by the World Economic Forum.

History of German gender gap laws

Following World War II, the German Basic Law of 1949 (Grundgesetz) was supposed to include amendments relative to the equality of men and women (Gleichberechtigung). However, the Adenauer government failed to take action. Four years later, the German Federal Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) took a major step toward implementing gender gap closure by revising the existing laws regarding individual rights. On 1 July 1958, the following changes relative to equality of men and women became effective:

Changes to German gender gap laws

• The husband’s right of final decision in matrimonial matters was deleted.
• The husband’s responsibility to provide for his family was retained.
• Women were now permitted to manage assets they had brought into the marriage. Until then, her husband had the right to manage her assets, including any moneys she may have earned from gainful employment.
• A husband could no longer terminate his wife’s employment. But it took until 1977 before a wife could work outside the home without her husband’s consent. And it was in 1977 that the partnership principle became effective which removed the division of marital responsibilities from the law and made it a private decision.
• A wife was given the right to use her maiden name in addition to her family name. But not until 1977 could married couples choose whether they wanted to adopt the husband’s or the wife’s family name as their mutual last name. And not until 1994 was a marriage partner allowed to retain his or her separate family name.
• The special rights of fathers relative to the education of the couple’s children were reduced and totally eliminated in 1979.

International gender gap closure rankings

In October 2013, the World Economic Forum released a report that benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, educational and health-based criteria and provides country rankings. Of the 136 countries surveyed, according to the report, Iceland did the best job of closing the gender gap in 2013, followed by Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Germany ranked 14th, Great Britain 18th, the USA 23rd, and France ranked 45th. Worst fared Chad, Pakistan and Yemen. For more detailed information please visit www3.weforum.org/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2013.pdf

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on the home page of http://www.walled-in-berlin.com. Walled-In is a story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War.