This study examines the short-term consequences for care-arrangements among working parents, who were affected by the closure of schools and institutional childcare as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. By applying multinomial logistic regression models to novel data from two panel surveys of the National Educational Panel Study and its supplementary COVID-19 web survey, the study finds that mothers continue to play a key role in the care-arrangements during the first months of the pandemic. Moreover, the results illustrate the importance of working conditions, especially the possibility of remote work for the altered care-arrangements. Overall, the findings point towards systematic gender differences in the relationship between parental working conditions and the care-arrangements. KEYWORDS Childcare; gender division of family work; school closure; corona lockdown; NEPS-C

This study investigates whether the expansion of public child care for children aged younger than 3 years in Germany has been associated with individual-level change in gender ideologies. The authors develop and test a theoretical framework of the short-term impact of family policy institutions on ideology change. The analysis links the German Family Panel pairfam (2008 to 2015) with administrative records on county-level child-care provision for those aged younger than 3 years and applies fixed effects panel models. The findings show that the child-care expansion has been associated with moderate changes toward less-traditional gender ideologies only among mothers in West Germany and mostly among mothers without a college degree. In East Germany, the authors found evidence of more traditional gender ideologies among mothers without a college degree as the child-care reform unfolded. The results provide evidence that policy reforms may alter gender ideologies also in the short-term.During the past decades, many Western countries have invested increasingly in family

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This study investigates whether increased availability of low-cost, state-subsidised childcare for underthree-year-olds in Germany is associated with shorter employment interruptions amongst mothers. By focusing on a major childcare reform in East and West Germany, we examine the effect in two contexts that differ markedly in the acceptance and use of formal childcare and maternal employment. We combine rich longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2006 to 2014) with annual administrative county-level data on the availability of low-cost, state-subsidised childcare, estimating event history models. The results indicate that increased childcare availability for underthree-year-olds reduces mothers' employment interruptions, particularly after a second childbirth, and increases the probability of returning to part-time or full-time employment as opposed to marginal employment. Furthermore, increased availability of low-cost, state-subsidised childcare increases mothers' likelihood of returning to employment in the second year after childbirth, when paid leave entitlements expire and the availability of childcare becomes important. However, our results are only statistically significant for West German mothers and only after the birth of a second child. The study extends the literature on women's return-to-work behaviour by providing evidence on the mediumterm impact of family policy on the duration of mothers' employment interruptions.

Previous cross-sectional studies highlight persistent East–West differences in gender ideologies after German reunification. This study examines the extent to which gender ideologies in the East and West have converged and whether differences are still relevant for younger cohorts who experienced childhood around the time of reunification, or after 1989. Using data from the German Family Panel pairfam (2008–2019) and differences in regime-specific socialization for three cohorts born before and after reunification, results reveal that different dimensions of gender ideologies have only partly converged 30 years after reunification. Attitudes towards housework and female employment converged particularly, yet, in all cohorts, views on maternal employment remain substantially different between East and West. Observed convergence occurred only partly due to contrasting trends of modernization in West Germany and re-traditionalization in East Germany. Moreover, the results highlight smaller attitude changes with increasing age, particularly for the younger cohorts, contributing to further variations in East–West differences. Overall, the findings confirm the existence of long-lasting ideology differences due to regime-specific socialization, and a persistently altered composition of society in East and West Germany. At the same time, they point towards slow convergence among younger cohorts due to a more similar institutional and socialization context following reunification.