from
Paulina Würminghausen
More about women and the economy in the magazine “Plan W”
This article first appeared in “Plan W”, the SZ’s women’s business magazine. Why is the term superwoman outdated? What is the best way to save money for old age? And why do traveling professions have to be rethought? You can find answers to these questions and other interviews and portraits in the digital Plan W edition.
Sometimes it is silent observations that can shape a whole life. Helma Sick’s case was about a neighbor in the small village where she grew up. She was married to an alcoholic who beat her regularly. Everyone knew about it, no one could do anything about it. Above all, not the woman herself, because she was financially dependent on him. What sounds like a solitary horror story here has drawn the everyday lives of many women in the last century. The traumatized war returnees, the one-sided distribution of roles, the capitalist economic miracle. To this day, the heteronormative German tax system still supports the care marriage through the splitting of spouses: One, mostly the man, earns significantly more than the other, mostly the woman – this is rewarded with tax breaks.