IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v37y2023i2p373-393.html

Gender Role Attitudes and Labour Market Behaviours: Do Attitudes Contribute to Gender Differences in Employment in Germany?

Author

Listed:
  • Torsten Lietzmann

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany)

  • Corinna Frodermann

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany)

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on persistent gender inequalities in the labour market by investigating gender role attitudes in Germany and their association with labour market behaviour. Based on the German Panel Study ‘Labour Market and Social Security’ (PASS), longitudinal analyses are applied to examine the influence of gender role attitudes and the household context on various employment states. The results reveal that gender role attitudes are crucial for labour market behaviour and that there are differences among women and men in different household contexts. Whereas single men and women do not differ significantly in their employment probabilities, women in couple households are less active in the labour market than their male counterparts. Furthermore, differences in employment are largest in couples with children. Among women, differences in full-time employment by household context become smaller when these women hold egalitarian attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Torsten Lietzmann & Corinna Frodermann, 2023. "Gender Role Attitudes and Labour Market Behaviours: Do Attitudes Contribute to Gender Differences in Employment in Germany?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 373-393, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:2:p:373-393
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170211011318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170211011318
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170211011318?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laurie F. DeRose & Frances Goldscheider & Javiera Reyes Brito & Andrés Salazar-Arango & Paúl Corcuera & Paúl J. Corcuera & Montserrat Gas-Aixendri, 2019. "Are Children Barriers to the Gender Revolution? International Comparisons," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 987-1021, December.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, August.
    3. Pia Schober & Jacqueline Scott, 2012. "Maternal employment and gender role attitudes: dissonance among British men and women in the transition to parenthood," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 26(3), pages 514-530, June.
    4. Christopher Kollmeyer, 2012. "Family Structure, Female Employment, and National Income Inequality: A Cross-National Study of 16 Western Ccountries," LIS Working papers 579, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Markus Gangl & Andrea Ziefle, 2009. "Motherhood, labor force behavior, and women’s careers: An empirical assessment of the wage penalty for motherhood in britain, germany, and the united states," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(2), pages 341-369, May.
    6. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    7. Claudia Weinkopf, 2014. "Women's Employment in Germany. Robust in Crisis but Vulnerable in Job Quality," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(2), pages 189-214.
    8. Alessandra Fogli & Raquel Fernandez, 2009. "Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 146-177, January.
    9. Esping-Andersen, Gosta, 1999. "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198742005.
    10. Platt, Lucinda & Polavieja, Javier, 2016. "Saying and doing gender: intergenerational transmission of attitudes towards the sexual division of labour," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67302, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Nicole M Fortin, 2005. "Gender Role Attitudes and the Labour-market Outcomes of Women across OECD Countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 416-438, Autumn.
    12. Stefan Bauernschuster & Helmut Rainer, 2012. "Political regimes and the family: how sex-role attitudes continue to differ in reunified Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 5-27, January.
    13. Kirsten Stam & Ellen Verbakel & Paul Graaf, 2014. "Do Values Matter? The Impact of Work Ethic and Traditional Gender Role Values on Female Labour Market Supply," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 593-610, April.
    14. Lídia Farré & Francis Vella, 2013. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Role Attitudes and its Implications for Female Labour Force Participation," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 80(318), pages 219-247, April.
    15. Julie Brines, 1993. "The Exchange Value of Housework," Rationality and Society, , vol. 5(3), pages 302-340, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hingre, Garance & Russell, Helen & McGinnity, Frances & Smyth, Emer, 2024. "Gender and labour market inclusion on the island of Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS176.
    2. Parla Onuk & Yılmaz Aydin, 2024. "Gender gap and the labour market structure: A neoclassical approach for the case of Turkiye," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 4627-4640, October.
    3. Frodermann, Corinna & Hipp, Lena & Bünning, Mareike, 2024. "Money Matters! Evidence From a Survey Experiment on Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment Across Contexts in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 38(3), pages 436-465.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cavapozzi, Danilo & Francesconi, Marco & Nicoletti, Cheti, 2021. "The impact of gender role norms on mothers’ labor supply," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 113-134.
    2. Francesconi, Marco & Nicoletti, Cheti & Cavapozzi, Danilo, 2021. "The Impact of Gender Role Norms on Mothers’ Labor Supply," CEPR Discussion Papers 15957, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Cavapozzi, Danilo & Francesconi, Marco & Nicoletti, Cheti, 2024. "Dividing Housework between Partners: Individual Preferences and Social Norms," IZA Discussion Papers 17370, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Mireia Borrell-Porta & Joan Costa-Font & Julia Philipp, 2019. "The ‘mighty girl’ effect: does parenting daughters alter attitudes towards gender norms?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 71(1), pages 25-46.
    5. Patricia Cortés & Jessica Pan, 2023. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1359-1409, December.
    6. Joanne S. Muller & Nicole Hiekel & Aart C. Liefbroer, 2020. "The Long-Term Costs of Family Trajectories: Women’s Later-Life Employment and Earnings Across Europe," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1007-1034, June.
    7. Barbara Boelmann & Anna Raute & Uta Schönberg, 2020. "Wind of Change? Cultural Determinants of Maternal Labor Supply," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2020, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    8. Bredtmann, Julia & Otten, Sebastian, 2025. "Natives’ gender norms and the labor market integration of female immigrants," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    9. Sreevidya Ayyar & Uta Bolt & Eric French & Cormac O'Dea, 2024. "Imagine your life at 25: Gender conformity and later-life outcomes," IFS Working Papers W24/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Rivera-Garrido, Noelia, 2022. "Can education reduce traditional gender role attitudes?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Unterhofer, Ulrike & Wrohlich, Katharina, 2017. "Fathers, Parental Leave and Gender Norms," IZA Discussion Papers 10712, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Ye, Bing & Zhao, Yucong, 2018. "Women hold up half the sky? Gender identity and the wife's labor market performance in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 116-141.
    13. Ralsmark, Hilda, 2017. "Education, norms, and gender equality," Working Papers in Economics 702, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    14. Simon Rabaté & Sara Rellstab, 2022. "What Determines the Child Penalty in the Netherlands? The Role of Policy and Norms," De Economist, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 195-229, May.
    15. Görges, Luise, 2021. "Of housewives and feminists: Gender norms and intra-household division of labour," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    16. Carlianne Patrick & Heather Stephens & Amanda Weinstein, 2024. "Born to care (or not): How gender role attitudes affect occupational sorting," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(2), pages 203-229, June.
    17. J. Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Yu Zhu, 2018. "Intergenerational mobility of housework time in the United Kingdom," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 911-937, December.
    18. Sophia Schmitz & C. Katharina Spieß, 2021. "The Importance of Mothers-in-Law's Employment for Their Daughter-in-Law's Labour Market Outcomes in West-Germany: Results and Mechanisms," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1932, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Raquel Fernandez, 2007. "Culture as Learning: The Evolution of Female Labor Force Participation over a Century," NBER Working Papers 13373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Luise Görges, 2021. "Of housewives and feminists: Gender norms and intra-household division of labour," Working Paper Series in Economics 400, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:2:p:373-393. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.