IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/235702.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How can we become more equal? Public policies and parents' work-family preferences in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Bünning, Mareike
  • Hipp, Lena

Abstract

This study examines how public policies affect parents’ preferences for a more egalitarian division of paid and unpaid work. Based on the assumption that individuals develop their preferences within a specific policy context, we examine how changes in three policies affect mothers’ and fathers’ work–family preferences: the availability of high-quality, affordable childcare; the right to return to a full-time job after having reduced hours to part-time and an increase in the number of ‘partner months’ in parental leave schemes. Analysing a unique probability sample of parents with young children in Germany from 2015 (N = 1756), we find that fathers would want to work slightly fewer hours if they had the right to return to a full-time position after working part-time, and mothers would want to work slightly more hours if childcare opportunities were improved. Full-time working parents, moreover, are found to prefer fewer hours independent of the policy setting, while non-employed parents would like to work at least some hours. Last but not least, our analyses show that increasing the number of partner months in the parental leave scheme considerably increases fathers’ preferences for longer and mothers’ preferences for shorter leave. Increasing the number of partner months in parental schemes hence has the greatest potential to increase gender equality.

Suggested Citation

  • Bünning, Mareike & Hipp, Lena, 2022. "How can we become more equal? Public policies and parents' work-family preferences in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 182-196.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:235702
    DOI: 10.1177/09589287211035701
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/235702/3/Full-text-article-Buenning-et-al-How-can-we.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09589287211035701?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. 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.
    2. Dieckhoff, Martina & Gash, Vanessa & Mertens, Antje & Romeu Gordo, Laura, 2016. "A stalled revolution? What can we learn from women’s drop-out to part-time jobs: A comparative analysis of Germany and the UK," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46, pages 129-140.
    3. Nadiya Kelle & Julia Simonson & Laura Romeu Gordo, 2017. "Is Part-Time Employment after Childbirth a Stepping-Stone into Full-Time Work? A Cohort Study for East and West Germany," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 201-224, October.
    4. Budig, Michelle J. & Misra, Joya & Boeckmann, Irene, 2016. "Work-family policy trade-offs for mothers? Unpacking the cross-national variation in motherhood earnings penalties," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 119-177.
    5. Bünning, Mareike & Pollmann-Schult, Matthias, 2016. "Family policies and fathers’ working hours: cross-national differences in the paternal labour supply," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 256-274.
    6. Hipp, Lena & Molitor, Friederike & Leschke, Janine & Bekker, Sonja, 2017. "Teilzeitväter? Deutschland, Schweden, Irland und die Niederlande im Vergleich," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 32-48.
    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. Heejung Chung & Hyojin Seo, 2024. "Flexibility Stigma Across Europe: How National Contexts can Shift the Extent to which Flexible Workers are Stigmatised," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 945-965, September.

    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. 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.
    2. Lara Lebedinski & Cristiano Perugini & Marko Vladisavljević, 2023. "Child penalty in Russia: evidence from an event study," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 173-215, March.
    3. Hipp, Lena, 2018. "Do hiring practices penalize women and benefit men for having children? Experimental evidence from Germany," SocArXiv 4a68p, Center for Open Science.
    4. Hipp, Lena, 2020. "Do hiring practices penalize women and benefit men for having children? Experimental evidence from Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 250-264.
    5. Éva Fodor & Christy Glass, 2018. "Negotiating for entitlement: Accessing parental leave in Hungarian firms," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 687-702, November.
    6. Eunjeong Paek, 2023. "Does Overwork Attenuate the Motherhood Earnings Penalty among Full-Time Workers?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(1), pages 78-96, February.
    7. Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska & Anna Matysiak, 2018. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty: A Meta-Analysis," VID Working Papers 1808, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    8. Mari, Gabriele & Cutuli, Giorgio, 2018. "Do parental leaves make the motherhood wage penalty worse? Assessing two decades of German reforms," SocArXiv f2nrc, Center for Open Science.
    9. Paige N. Park, 2022. "Occupational Attainment Among Parents in Germany and the US 2000–2016: The Role of Gender and Immigration Status," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2447-2492, December.
    10. Agnieszka Kasperska, 2022. "Working from Home and Employee Perception of Career Prospects in Europe: the Gender and Family Perspectives," Working Papers 2022-31, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    11. Gabriele Mari & Giorgio Cutuli, 2019. "Do Parental Leaves Make the Motherhood Wage Penalty Worse? Assessing Two Decades of German Reforms," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1025, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    12. Shichao Du, 2023. "Childbearing Risk, Job Sectors, and the Motherhood Wage Penalty," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-19, April.
    13. Kadreva, Olga, 2016. "The influence of quantity and age of children on working women’ salaries," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 41, pages 62-77.
    14. Leone Leonida & Marianna Marra & Sergio Scicchitano & Antonio Giangreco & Marco Biagetti, 2020. "Estimating the Wage Premium to Supervision for Middle Managers in Different Contexts: Evidence from Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1004-1026, December.
    15. Gerlinde Mauerer & Eva-Maria Schmidt, 2019. "Parents’ Strategies in Dealing with Constructions of Gendered Responsibilities at Their Workplaces," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-17, September.
    16. Sheree Gibb & David Fergusson & L. Horwood & Joseph Boden, 2014. "The Effects of Parenthood on Workforce Participation and Income for Men and Women," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 14-26, March.
    17. Tatiana Karabchuk, 2016. "The subjective well-being of women in Europe: children, work and employment protection legislation," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 15(2), pages 219-245, November.
    18. Georgellis, Yannis & Clark, Andrew E. & Apergis, Emmanuel & Robinson, Catherine, 2022. "Occupational status and life satisfaction in the UK: The miserable middle?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 509-527.
    19. Lane Destro & David Brady, 2010. "Does European-Style Welfare Generosity Discourage Single Mother Employment?," LIS Working papers 548, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    20. Collischon, Matthias, 2016. "Personality, ability, marriage and the gender wage gap: Evidence from Germany," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 08/2016, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.

    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:zbw:espost:235702. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    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.