Daniela Grunow

What determines change in the division of housework over the course of marriage

This article analyses the changing division of housework between husbands and wives in western Germany. Using representative longitudinal data from the Bamberg Panel Study of Married Couples, the authors analyse how the division of household labour changes over the first 14 years of marriage. In particular, they assess when and under what conditions the husband’s share of traditionally ‘female’ housework increases or decreases. They consider shifts in spouses’ employment hours, relative earnings and family transitions as time-varying predictor variables in event-history models. It is found that almost half of all newlyweds begin by sharing household tasks equally. But over the course of marriage, the husband’s contribution to housework declines significantly, mostly independent of spouses’ income or working hours. The husband increasing his share of housework is uncommon, even when the wife works longer hours or realizes higher earnings. Traditional gender norms seem to trump earnings. This is particularly true when children are born.

Late 20th-Century Persistence and Decline of the Female Homemaker in Germany and the United States

The article compares changes in West German and American womens mid-career job exits and re-entries and introduces an innovative event-history model to compare mobility across three decades using 1940s and 1950s birth cohorts from the German Life History Study and the US National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women. Processes by which transitions through parenthood and marriage impact womens labour market participation vary by country and cohort, evidence that changing gender relations, norms and institutions provide unique options and restrictions for womens family and career trajectories. Homemaking is in decline in both countries, but event-history models show that this decline is due to different life course dynamics in each country: womens job attachment has increased throughout the family cycle in the US, while German women still exit the labour market, but at motherhood rather than marriage, and for shorter durations. Employment interruptions have become more penalizing for women in both countries.

Was erklärt die Traditionalisierungsprozesse häuslicher Arbeitsteilung im Eheverlauf: soziale Normen oder ökonomische Ressourcen? What Explains the Process of Traditionalization in the Division of Household Labor: Social Norms or Economic Resources?

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag analysiert die Dynamik von Traditionalisierungsprozessen der häuslichen Arbeitsteilung im Eheverlauf westdeutscher Paare. Die Studie weist nach, dass vor allem Traditionalisierungsprozesse die Entwicklungsrichtung der häuslichen Arbeitsteilung dominieren. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, ob und inwieweit normenorientierte soziologische und ressourcenorientierte ökonomische Theorien geeignet sind, zu erklären, weshalb Männer in der Regel ihren relativen Beitrag an den weiblich konnotierten Haushaltstätigkeiten im Zeitverlauf verringern. Auf Basis einer Analyse von Längsschnittdaten des Bamberger Ehepaar-Panels zeigt sich, dass ökonomische Handlungstheorien vor allem wegen ihrer geschlechtssymmetrischen Vorhersagen die Dynamik arbeitsteiliger Traditionalisierungsprozesse nicht erklären können. Mit der These zur Veränderung normativer Bezugsrahmen für geschlechteregalitäre und -divergente Fairnessnormen werden Überlegungen angestellt, wie man die Veränderung der Arbeitsteilung im Haushaltskontext besser verstehen kann. Summary This paper examines the dynamics of traditionalization in spouses’ division of labor in the course of marriage in West Germany. We tackle the question as to whether and to what extent norm-oriented sociological theories and economic resource theories explain men’s relatively decreasing involvement in housework with an increase in the duration of marriage. Mens relative contribution to housework clearly declines in the course of marriage. An increase in their relative involvement is the exception. Using event-history and panel analyses and longitudinal data from the Bamberg Panel Study of Married Couples findings indicate that economic action theories with their gender-symmetric predictions cannot really explain why couples tend to divide their household chores more traditionally with increasing duration of marriage. Consistent interpretations arise when taking normative considerations into account. We suggest the idea of shifting normative frames in the course of family formation to recognize the co-existence of egalitarian gender and traditional fairness norms in the household context.

Do Economic Globalization and Industry Growth Destabilize Careers? An Analysis of Career Complexity and Career Patterns Over Time

We analyze the impact of economic globalization and industry growth on the complexity of early work careers in Germany. We conceptualize complexity as the absolute number of employer changes, the regularity in the order of job changes, and the variability of the durations spent in different employment states. Results from empirical analyses based on the German Life History Study (N = 5453) show only a small increase in the complexity of work careers over the last decades, but there was a shift in the prevalence of different career patterns. This suggests that effects of globalization might be counteracted or modified by other social changes that affected work careers in Germany during the last 60 years. In particular, we consider the possible impact of educational expansion, labor market restructuring, and women’s increased employment. We find no evidence that industry-specific economic globalization impacts the complexity of work careers, but we find a U-shaped relationship between industry growth and career complexity. Careers are slightly more complex in industries with high or low industry growth. We conclude that, while there has been a shift in career patterns over time, the impact of globalization on career stability is possibly overestimated.

Women's work interruptions and career prospects in Germany and Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on two welfare state regimes with differing degrees of de‐familialisation strategies, Germany and Sweden, to study whether and how womens career interruptions influence their labour market prospects. By comparing women with continuous careers to those with discontinuous careers due to: parental leave or homemaking; unemployment; or other reasons, the authors explore the support for the skill depreciation hypothesis and signalling theory. Depending on the type of welfare state regime, the authors expect women to be subject to varying degrees of career punishment for time spent out of the labour market.Design/methodology/approach – Cox proportional hazard regression models of the transition rate of an upward or downward occupational move among women in the labour market were estimated.Findings – Focusing on upward career moves, the results show no significant relationship between a career interruption and upward occupational moves in Germany. In Sweden, the l...

Gender Ideologies in Europe: A Multidimensional Framework: Gender Ideologies in Europe: Multidimensional Scheme

The authors argue, in line with recent research, that operationalizing gender ideology as a unidimensional construct ranging from traditional to egalitarian is problematic and propose an alternative framework that takes the multidimensionality of gender ideologies into account. Using latent class analysis, they operationalize their gender ideology framework based on data from the 2008 European Values Study, of which eight European countries reflecting the spectrum of current work–family policies were selected. The authors examine the form in which gender ideologies cluster in the various countries. Five ideology profiles were identified: egalitarian, egalitarian essentialism, intensive parenting, moderate traditional, and traditional. The five ideology profiles were found in all countries, but with pronounced variation in size. Ideologies mixing gender essentialist and egalitarian views appear to have replaced traditional ideologies, even in countries offering some institutional support for gendered separate spheres.

Social policies and families in stress : gender and educational differences in work–family conflict from a European perspective

In modern welfare states, family policies may resolve the tension between employment and care-focused demands. However these policies sometimes have adverse consequences for distinct social groups. This study examined gender and educational differences in working parents’ perceived work–family conflict and used a comparative approach to test whether family policies, in particular support for child care and leave from paid work, are capable of reducing work–family conflict as well as the gender and educational gaps in work–family conflict. We use data from the European Social Survey 2010 for 20 countries and 5296 respondents (parents), extended with information on national policies for maternity and parental leave and child care support from the OECD Family Database. Employing multilevel analysis, we find that mothers and the higher educated report most work–family conflict. Policies supporting child care reduce the level of experienced work–family conflict; family leave policy appears to have no alleviating impact on working parents’ work–family conflict. Our findings indicate that family policies appear to be unable to reduce the gender gap in conflict perception and even widen the educational gap in work–family conflict.

Work interruptions and young women’s career prospects in Germany, Sweden and the US

This article assesses the impact of discontinuous work histories on young women’s occupational mobility in Germany, Sweden and the US. Women with continuous work histories are compared with those with gaps due to family leave, unemployment, or other reasons. The German Life History Study, the Swedish Level of Living Survey and the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to estimate Cox regression models of the transition rate to downward or upward occupational mobility. The results indicate that US women face increased downward mobility with increasing duration of both family leave and unemployment. German women with unemployment experience are also more likely to encounter downward mobility, but no such relationship is found for family leave. In Sweden, family leave experience reduces the chances of upward mobility. Results question the human capital approach, according to which skills should deteriorate at the same rate independent of the reason for the leave.

Do economic resources play a role in bargaining child care in couples? Parental investment in cases of matching and mismatching gender ideologies in Germany

ABSTRACT This paper examines the factors associated with a gendered division of childcare among parents in Germany. While much is known on the gender division of housework in families and the economic and sociological factors that may be driving it, we still know relatively little about whether and how these factors may affect the division of unpaid childcare in families. We first assess the relevance of partner’s combined gender ideologies and relative resources on the division of unpaid childcare. Second, we assess whether the effect of economic resources may be contingent on the partners’ agreement or disagreement on gender ideologies concerning maternal employment. We address these questions using data from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) and MLM Growth Curve Models. Our findings consistently show a significant positive effect of partners’ combined gender ideologies and her share of income on his share of childcare. These effects are strongest, and robust, among couples with matching ideologies supporting maternal employment, which we term ‘egalitarian island’ couples. Economically efficient divisions of childcare thus appear dependent upon the couples’ ideological pairing and on mothers’ ideologies towards maternal employment.

Institutions as reference points for parents-to-be in European societies : A theoretical and analytical framework

Raising children is a fundamentally important human act. Parenting – understood as allocating time and resources to one’s children – is essential to secure the survival and well-being of children and societies at large. European societies promote distinct gender ideologies of how new parents should allocate their time and resources, thereby directing fathers and mothers to have particular experiences in these emotionally significant relationships (Kremer 2007). These gender ideologies, so we claim, are intertwined with the roles ascribed to the state, market and family in the provision of paid and unpaid forms of work and care. While ascribing unpaid housework and care exclusively to women has been an outcome of the industrial revolution (Pinchbeck 2013; Tilly 1994; Tilly and Scott 1987), new ascriptions have been debated and negotiated on several societal levels since. In the context of parenthood, key actors where these negotiations can be observed are dual-earner couples expecting their first child. At present, the majority of new mothers, but few new fathers, adjust their employment in favour of childcare, thereby accepting negative career consequences, including financial dependence on their partner or the welfare state. These gendered choices penalize women and contribute to persistent gender inequalities in European societies. If we are to undergo a fundamental change in how paid work and care work are divided between men and women in the twenty-first century, we argue that dual-earner parents will be the pioneers. The degree to which these couples are in a position to rethink and negotiate motherhood and fatherhood is, we suggest, highly dependent on the policy context in which couples find themselves. It is therefore necessary to observe