A Revival for the German ‚Hausfrauenehe‘?
Even nowadays, there is a saying among young ladies in Germany: “Girls are better off – they can stop working when they get married“ – which is not quite right, because most women in Germany stop working full-time after they gave birth to their first child – and a lot of the German women do still not continue learning and working – this leads into a German “Hausfrauenehe“, where the housewife does nothing else but to do the housework and take care for the children.
Now, a German carrier women who is known by the name of “Eva Herman“, a former Fräulein Feldker, who was married to a car dealer named Werner Herrmann, but uses the name “Herman“ as her “nom de plume“, hat written a book where she claims that Emancipation is the main problem for German families – and that she would like to return to the German “Hausfrauenehe“ if she would have a second choice. It is quite obvious that the catholic church and other conservative members of the German society support her strange opinions, but even the German Christian Democratic Union does not support her writing – and what is more important, not even German men do so.
What right does the hoteliers daughter and former anchorwoman have to claim such strange things and why is the Roman Catholic Church her only real supporter? Nobody knows. In real life, she has been married four times, was one of the most famous journalists in Germany (before she wrote her book in question) and has one son out of a divorced marriage – so she is quite a different woman from what she preaches.
Let’s face it, Ms. Herman – the book makes a lot of money, and so will you. That seems to bee the main reason (if not the only reason) to write such things as “Das Eva Prinzip“ (not available in English so far).