Suchergebnisse

Thecauses of any revolution are notoriously hard to discover. Despite years of effort, historians still disagree about the relative importance of the short-term and long-term causes of the German revolution in 1918–19. Some describe the "events" at the end of the war as a largely unrevolutionary desire for peace and food, brought about by the privations of the war years; others explain them as the culmination of decades of escalating class conflicts, which the conditions of war sharply exposed. One problem with this whole debate has been an insufficient knowledge of exactly what happened to Germany's workers during the war. Although most historians agree that money wages went up, real wages declined and most people ate less, few have been able to gauge the extent or importance of the change in wages or determine whether workers were simply somewhat hungry, malnourished, or starving. Furthermore there is not enough known about the composition of the work force during the war and the different hardships endured by skilled and unskilled workers.

InChristoph Wetzel's 1988 painting,An Everyday Story, the divided canvas proudly depicts women's accomplishments in the German Democratic Republic (Figure 1). On one side, a woman operates a large piece of heavy machinery in a rolling mill, cool and competent behind the enormous mass of metal and gears. On the other side, the same woman helps her two children prepare for school in the morning. In the act of combing her daughter's hair, she looks out directly at the viewer, her expression asking: "And what are you surprised at?" This painting, displayed as part of a 1995 exposition on art commissioned by government agencies in the GDR, graphically displays that government's ideological commitment to women's paid labor, especially in jobs that, in capitalist societies, are often thought to be inappropriate for women.

Uses the metaphor of the two-way street to describe the problems encountered in trying to develop a constructive discourse between feminism & education on the Bates Coll (Lewiston, ME) campus. The goals were to include feminist perspectives in science courses & encompass scientific material in women's studies courses as a way to both enrich women's studies & develop a "self-conscious science" that was aware of its own assumptions, historical background, & social context. The project was approached "one lane at a time" by first addressing scientists, & then the women's studies faculty, in an effort to alleviate the fear each group had of the other. The numerous barriers to opening a two-way discussion are related, including significant problems related to language differences between scientists & feminists. By the second year, women's studies faculty members were willing to consider the importance of including scientific content in their courses, & members of both groups were beginning to talk "to," rather than past, each other. The urgent need to develop communication between different discourse communities is discussed. 22 References. J. Lindroth