Meet Solveig and Claudia. Each lives on a side of a BIG WALL.

On the East side, Solveig runs a state-owned farm and raises her kids. 

On the West side, Claudia quits her job as a bank clerk to raise her kids. 

This was decades and decades ago in Germany, during a time called the Cold War. The BIG WALL was the Berlin Wall. It separated the communist parts of Germany from the democratic parts.

Communist countries have strict rules. Those rules vary from the rules in countries like the United States. Communism says individual people shouldn’t own farms, businesses, or factories. The government owns those things. People still work in those places, but the government gets the money. Then the government passes out the money to the people. 

Communism might sound like a good way to share. But it usually doesn’t work. Most people end up poor. A few leaders get rich off others’ work. Often regular citizens do not want to think of new ideas to make the country prosper. That’s because they know the government—and not the inventors or workers—will gain from new ideas.

And communism changed life for women. Women on the East side of the wall were ordered to work in state-run businesses. Other people took care of their kids. On the West side, women carried on life as usual—with most taking care of their kids while their husbands went to work. 

The Berlin Wall is long gone. But life still looks a bit different for German women in the East and West. In the East, more women take care of kids and work jobs at the same time. In the West, more women stay at home with their families.

“All the heavy industry was in the West. There was nothing here,” says Solveig Leo. She is now 81 years old.

Meanwhile, says Ms. Leo, women in the West didn’t need to work. After the war, West Germany had a healthy economy. Was this healthy economy good for women, or bad?

It depends on how you look at it. On one hand, moms had more freedom to stay home with their children if they wanted to. On the other hand, moms who wanted to work were called uncaring mothers.

Moms work hard—in the home and out of it! Do you have a hardworking mom in your life? Make sure you give her a big “thank you”!

Strength and dignity are her clothing. — Proverbs 31:25

Why? God made people for freedom. Political freedom gives people opportunity to flourish.