Gender and Work in Germany: Before and After Reunification

Abstract

I Abstract New state and market arrangements were twice imposed on the residents of the eastern part of Germany, once when Germany was divided in 1949 and again when it was reunified in 1990; these changes produced a unique natural experiment concerning the effect of policies and institutions on the gendered nature of work. This review synthesizes research on gender equality in paid and unpaid work in East versus West Germany during the decades immediately preceding and following reunification. We consider empirical evidence on gender equality in five major dimensions of work: the prevalence of labor market attachment, time spent in paid work, wages, employment sector and occupation, and time spent in unpaid work in the home. Taken together, developments across these dimensions suggest that, following reunification, the two parts of the country converged toward the gendered arrangement in which men are employed full-time and their female partners hold part-time jobs-with some evidence of continuing differences between East and West. * Rachel A. Rosenfeld died on November 24, 2002. This article is dedicated to her memory.

Balanced skills among nascent entrepreneurs

“…The labour market literature teaches us that labour force participation and thus skill acquisition often depends on the individual's socio-economic state. With respect to our empirical context (Germany) the labour force participation of women is low and even shrinking in East Germany (Rosenfeld et al 2004). Econometric studies also revealed that having children increases the likelihood of unemployment (Hunt 2000).…”

Working time preferences, hours mismatch and well-being of couples: Are there spillovers?

“…First, we expect a gender-specific asymmetry in the relationship between working time preferences and well-being because labor market institutions in the western part of Germany, which we focus on, encourage a gendered division of labor (e.g., Rosenfeld et al 2004). 3 In particular, tax policy and the limited provision of 3 We exclude East Germany from the analysis because of the differences in the performance of the labor market and the provision of public child care.…”

Research on Students' Performance in Higher Education through Sequence Analysis

“…In contrast, in the period following World War II, the FRG had a democratic multiparty parliament, a market economy, and a corporatist conservative welfare state (Rosenfeld, Trappe, & Gornick, 2004). The arguably purest implementation of the male breadwinner model (Prince Cooke & Baxter, 2010) resulted in female labour market participation around only 50%, of which much was part time.…”