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159 Impedi men t s to Pro gress: The Formal Labor Market Hanna Beate Schöpp-Schilling, Germany When I started my work as an expert on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (the Committee) in 1989, I held the political position of Director General for Women’s Affairs of the newly established Department of that name in the traditional Federal Ministry of Family, Youth and Health in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). At the time, I had hardly any knowledge of international law and human rights and was only barely acquainted with the Convention, which had not played a driving role in the Federal Ministry when we drafted the “Ten-Point-Plan for Women” in 1987. In fact, my original academic training in German and American literature and cultural history had not included any knowledge of or training in law per se. However, due to a number of factors, which had influenced my professional development in the late 1970s and 1980s, I had gained insight into various aspects of antidiscrimination and labor law and had become an ardent proponent of the American practice of affirmative action (temporary special measures according to Convention Article 4 [1]), when I started serving on the Committee. In addition, international conferences on emerging feminist issues related to women’s work, which I had conceptualized and convened for academic circles, elite groups of public figures as well as the general public, had introduced me to different policy models promoting women’s employment and striving for compatibility of work in the family and the labor market. These included the innovative Swedish policy of the dual roles of men and women and the contrasting approaches of the FRG and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which were based on very different principles of political, legal, economic, and social organization and pursued almost opposite ideologies with respect to the lives and work of women living under their respective jurisdictions. Having lived, studied and worked in West Berlin since 1962, I had not only been confronted with the reality of the Berlin Wall on a daily basis, but also with the practical impact of these ideologies on women’s lives in the two Germanies. The conferences also introduced me to the world of politics and ultimately led to my political appointment as the first Director General for Women’s Affairs at the federal level in 1987. In this position I became engaged in the formulation or amendment of a number of laws in various areas, including the amendment of the nondiscrimination provision on the basis of sex of the Civil Code as requested by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the basis of the European Union Directives of 1975 and 1976 as well as a new equal opportunities law for the public sector. Once I joined the Committee in 1989, my government work suddenly confronted me with unforeseen challenges. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. In early 1990, the GDR held its first free and democratic election, but in the course of subsequent events, including a mass exodus of its population into the FRG, it could not survive as an independent State. On October 3, 1990, the two German States unified; the GDR acceded to the FRG. From November 1989 and until I left my government position in early 1992, I had to deal with some of the consequences of the transformation of the socialist political and economic system . My position allowed me to identify and utilize many opportunities, policies, and strategies to obviate or counteract at least some aspects of the economic changes, which impacted negatively on both women and men of the GDR on a massive scale, but, in particular on its women. Among other measures, the inclusion of a quota provision in the German Labor Promotion Act to guarantee unemployed women places according to their percentage among the unemployed population in programs of retraining, further training, and public job placements proved to be one of the more important and to some extent successful strategies to maintain economic opportunities for them (Schöpp-Schilling 1995, 27–40). These and other experiences of a more personal nature gave me a keen interest in Articles 11 (women’s equality in employment) and 4 (1) (temporary special measures) of the Convention. While I raised questions regarding the implementation of many articles of the Convention during eighteen years on the Committee, these two have remained at the center of my scrutiny of States Parties...

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