Gender Wage Inequalities Between Historical Heritage and Structural Adjustments: A German–German Comparison Over Time

Abstract

While research on the gender pay gap (GPG) is growing, there is little evidence on the stability or convergence of GPGs against the backdrop of sudden historical changes. Taking advantage of German reunification, after which western male-breadwinner policies were superimposed on the hitherto gender egalitarian East, we illuminate this research gap. Using decompositions on the Socio-economic Panel, we examine how historically grown gender arrangements influence the GPG in eastern and western Germany 1990–2013. We find support for the concept of a stalled gender revolution and a continued influence of pre-unification gender arrangements on the German GPG.

Can Regional Gender Ideologies Account for Variation of the Gender Pay Gap? The Case of Germany

“…Gender disparities in the wagedeterminants are partialled out of the gender coecient β and its random slope γ c . Corresponding to previous evidence (Achatz et al 2005, Minkus andBusch-Heizmann 2018), accounting for gender disparities in full-time employment, working experience and other human capital variables in Model 2 cuts the gender pay gap in half since these are all positively associated with individual 7 However, the coecient of gender ideologies indicates that with each standard deviation towards more traditional gender ideologies, the share of female employees in an industries decreases on average by 1.907 percentage points. Hence, traditional gender beliefs seems to hamper the labor force participation of women (see also Uunk and Lersch 2019).…”

“…However, accounting for spatial dependence does not aect the overall conclusions. Finally, previous research has indicated regional variation of gender pay gaps between East and West Germany (Minkus and Busch-Heizmann 2018) and by urbanity (Nisic 2017). While my previous analyses adjust for potential dierences in average wages, I also calculated separated models for each part of Germany and included cross-level interactions by urbanity to take into account potential dierences in the gender slope across both dimensions.…”

“…The few studies analyzing gender pay gaps within Germany reveal substantial subnational variation of pay dierences between men and women. Some research compares urban areas with rural areas revealing that gender pay gaps are more pronounced in the latter (Hirsch et al 2013, Nisic 2017, whilst others highlight persistent lower gender pay gaps in the region of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in contrast to West Germany (Achatz et al 2005, Minkus andBusch-Heizmann 2018). Using ne-grained administrative counties, Fuchs et al (2019) provide the most comprehensive analysis of subnational variation of gender pay gaps for Germany.…”

What Comes after Caring? The Impact of Family Care on Women’s Employment

“…As partners are assumed to have a joint utility function with a stable specialization in either paid work or unpaid care work, the person with the higher earnings potential specializes in paid work and provides the household’s income, whereas the person with the lower earnings potential specializes in care and household obligations and is only—if at all—marginally employed (Becker, 1993). Since women’s wages are, on average, lower than men’s (Minkus & Busch-Heizmann, 2018), it is usually the women who invest less in their occupational career and specialize in household production and unpaid caregiving tasks (Aisenbrey & Fasang, 2017). However, it might not only be specialization why women ‘opt’ to work reduced hours or to stay out of work after family care has terminated, but also other factors related to labor market and health consequences of caregiving.…”

Can Regional Gender Ideologies Account for Variation of Gender Pay Gaps? The Case of Germany

“…While such policies apply nation-wide, counties differ in their provision of public child-care, which has been considerably expanded since the mid-2000s (Zoch and Schober 2018). The policies and ideological importance within Germany can be highlighted by disparities between East Germany (former German Democratic Republic) and West Germany, with greater public child care provision and more egalitarian gender ideologies in East Germany prompting smaller gender pay gaps than those in West Germany (Achatz et al 2005;Minkus and Busch-Heizmann 2018). Further, research has found that women in rural areas are more disadvantaged than women in urban areas (Hirsch et al 2013;Nisic 2017), and using fine-grained administrative counties, Fuchs et al (2019) reveal most comprehensively that gender pay gaps vary subnationally within Germany.…”