The gendered division of labor and its perceived fairness: Implications for childbearing in Germany

Abstract

BACKGROUND Recently it has been claimed that gender equality and gender equity in the family tend to increase fertility. The strength of this association, however, depends on prevailing gender relations and the level of social support of employment and family within a society. OBJECTIVE We wish to improve our understanding of the relationship between gender equality, gender equity, and fertility by investigating the impact of the actual division of paid and unpaid labor on first-and second-birth fertility in Germany while including in our analyses a repeatedly measured indicator of gender equity that captures the subjective perception of fairness of this division. METHODS Using nine waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), we apply discrete-time logistic regression models to cohorts of young women and men in coresidential unions to determine whether a birth occurs in a given year while using measures of gender equality and gender equity as lagged time-varying covariates. RESULTS We find that an arrangement in which the woman is in charge of routine housework and the division of paid and unpaid work is perceived as fair is positively associated with family formation. The perception of a fair division of work is no prerequisite for continued childbearing. Yet women's responsibility for domestic work facilitates family extension. CONTRIBUTION This paper extends the literature on the relationship between gender equality, gender

Lessons from family firms: the use of flexible work arrangements and its consequences

“…Given that Germany provides the context to our study, we can assume that FB and RE respondents generally draw on similar pre-existing views of gender roles and norms. Recent research suggests that in Germany, the adherence to stereotypical gender roles is still quite common despite numerous policy efforts (Köppen and Trappe 2019 ). This can lead to the perpetuation of traditional gender roles, even among those who were using FWA (Lott and Chung 2016 ; Chung and van der Lippe 2020 ).…”

The types of fertility patterns in Europe

“…In Germany and Austria, women's procreation decisions are determined both by economic factors and their worldview. Women who attained higher levels of education and who are committed to professional careers usually postpone the birth of the first child, especially since the family policy in those countries lacks effective tools that support the motherhood-career balance (Dorbritz, 2008;Gordo, 2009;Köppen, Trappe, 2019;Prskawetz et al, 2008). The post-war division of Germany into the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (see Klärner, 2015) resulted in the eastern part of the country still being less developed economically than the western part (although this does not apply to big cities, such as Berlin).…”

Gender Roles and Families

“…With respect to gender norms influencing the division of domestic work within couples, gender traditionalism has been seen to characterize parents in general, with large variation in labor sharing among childless couples due to higher level of acceptance of egalitarian gender roles in Northern-and West-European societies and North America, but much skepticism toward gender egalitarian views in Central-Eastern Europe and Southern Europe (DeRose et al 2019). In the latter contexts, Germany included, equity has been seen to be interpreted in terms of investing similar amount of time into paid work as into domestic responsibilities rather than sharing tasks equally (Hamplová et al 2019;Köppen and Trappe 2019).…”