Population-5
Working Women
In bourgeois circles, the typical family managed to maintain its gender-specific roles. This was not true for the other classes. In general, the Great War opened a variety of new employment opportunities for women. There was still a high demand for clerical workers, but opportunities in industry also opened. In Great Britain, nearly two million women entered the work force in jobs previously held by men. In Russia, the number of women working in industry rose by nearly 20 percent. This was not true in imperial Germany. The increase in the number of workingwomen between 1907 and 1925 did not increase substantially. Many of the openings were in the skilled labor area, and factories preferred to get deferments for their male workers rather than train unskilled women. Further, knowing that they would lose their jobs after the war, German women did not flock to war industry jobs; they had no desire to be simply “place-holders.” In any case, men such as Hindenburg discouraged their active participation in the work place.
Family Aid, a program that was instituted to provide financial support to dependents of soldiers, did not provide an adequate income and if women earned additional income, their Family Aid could be reduced. The recipients did not look for factory jobs, but did sewing at home on piece rates (in some instances for the army), took in laundry and ironing for a fee, and if possible, sublet rooms where they were living to boarders. This enabled them to earn extra money and yet be available to care for dependents in their charge. One half of all women who were employed worked in agriculture. A third of workingwomen were domestic servants and no more than one-sixth worked in factories.
During this time, working women suffered disproportionately higher rates of illness and industrial accidents than did their male counterparts. Life on the home front was painful, difficult, and often resulted in psychological scarring. Some statistics indicate that women’s rates of industrial diseases were 25 percent higher than those of their male counterparts. Deaths from childbirth and lack of medical care rose over the war years by 60 percent.
The Importance of Social Insurance
The most remarkable and long-lasting achievement of Bismarck’s last years was the introduction in 1883 of social insurance. Imperial Germany was far ahead of its European counterparts in the area of social insurance. Employers paid two-thirds of the cost for their employees, who received both free medical care and weekly payments when ill. Farm workers did not receive health insurance until 1911 and, as was mentioned earlier, farm laborers could not unionize until 1918, the assumption being that in the countryside patriarchal relationships existed between employers and employees.
In 1884, the government passed accident insurance into law with employers paying all contributions. It was extended to farm workers two years later. In addition to the costs, the insurance legislation included a limit on working hours. Employers partially funded the insurance and as such, it was more industry-oriented than state-oriented.
The 1889 old-age and infirmity insurance provided for a split premium between employees and employer with the employer paying for only a small amount; old-age insurance was liberalized in 1899, when recipients could collect upon reaching age 70. These programs were expanded in 1900. Accident insurance covered 15 million workers and medical insurance covered 28 million workers.
As they did not own any property, these insurances tied the proletariat closer to the government and away from the Social Democrat Party. People on a pension understandably developed loyalty toward the monarchial state. Social historians believe that the state-offered insurance kept the Social Democrat Party a reform rather than a revolutionary organization. The insurance is also credited for a huge patriotic surge in 1914. Health insurance payments were small but they replaced a system where they had been zero. By 1917, basically all wage earners were covered by this system.
In 1891, the insurance legislation was supplemented by prohibiting child labor in factories, restricting night shifts for women and youths, and work on Sundays. The legislation was expanded in 1903, prohibiting child labor on building sites; in 1905, it limited the workday to 8 1/2 hours for miners; and in 1911, it included an insurance program for widows and orphans. The big gap in the social net was unemployment insurance. The municipalities and charities had to provide whatever support they could.