Undoing Gender with Institutions: Lessons from the German Division and Reunification

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Using the 41-year division of Germany as a natural experiment, we show that the German Democratic Republic’s gender-equal institutions created a culture that has undone the male breadwinner norm and its consequences. Since reunification, East Germany still differs from West Germany not only because of its higher female contribution to household income, but also because East German women can earn more than their husbands without having to increase their number of housework hours, put their marriage at risk or withdraw from the labour market. By contrast, the norm of higher male income, and its consequences, are still prevalent in West Germany.</jats:p>

Math, girls and socialism

“…The identification of the influence of the socialist period in East Germany rests on the assumption that Eastern and Western regions were identical before the division. It is now well established that the output and employment structure, as well as the rate of female labor market participation were similar in the regions of East and West Germany before the division (Alesina & Fuchs-Schündeln 2007, Bauernschuster & Rainer 2012, Schenk 2003, Lippmann et al 2016. We collected data from statistical yearbooks before the division in 1933 to provide substantive evidence on this matter.…”

“…This paper is far from being the first attempt to use the German division as a "natural experiment". Before us, some articles have illustrated the smaller gender gap in East Germany, as compared with West Germany, in terms of household behavior (Kuenzler et al 2001, Cooke 2004, self-reported work preferences and beliefs about gender role (Breen & Cooke 2005, Bauernschuster & Rainer 2012, Gorges & Beblo 2015, Campa & Serafinelli 2016, Lippmann et al 2016. Other papers have documented the lasting (and sometimes progressively withering) effect of East German institutions on mentalities (Alesina & Fuchs-Schündeln 2007, Rainer & Siedler 2009.…”

“…In view of its ambitious growth objectives (and maybe its egalitarian ideology), the former GDR, as alike other socialist countries, made employment a universal right, but also a duty, for women as well as men, and adopted a host of accompanying measures ensuring the compatibility between fertility and employment. These gender-equal policies reflected on the work values of women, and, more generally, modified the conception of gender roles (Campa & Serafinelli 2016, Lippmann et al 2016.…”

The separation and reunification of Germany: Rethinking a natural experiment interpretation of the enduring effects of communism

“…Furthermore, positive attitudes towards female employment are stronger in areas where growth in female employment was larger. Lippmann et al (2020) show that East German women contribute a larger share to household income. At the same time, West German women who contribute more to household income also put in more housework hours.…”

Men. Roots and Consequences of Masculinity Norms

“…First and foremost, we provide a new perspective on the causes and consequences of gender norms. Recent work has explored the historical origins -differences in technology (Alesina, Giuliano and Nunn (2013); Xue (2016)), soil structure (Carranza (2014)), political institutions (Lippmann, Georgieff and Senik (2016)) or, as in this study, historical sex ratios (GK) -of gender norms about women.…”