ISSN:
1468-2672
Content:
We examine the connection between fatherhood and employment hours using 30 years of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP 1985–2014). By inspecting how actual hours, preferred hours, and the correspondence between actual and preferred hours change during fatherhood, we clarify the interplay between fathers’ preferences and the labour market structures they encounter. We find that men born in 1960 or earlier prefer to (and are able to) increase their work hours slightly when they are fathers. Men born after 1960, in contrast, tend to prefer and achieve a slight reduction in work hours. Changes in fathers’ actual and preferred work hours, however, are not an individual decision: they reflect the paid work involvement of their partners. Men in the older cohort only increase their hours significantly when their partner is not employed. Men in the younger cohort only reduce their hours significantly when their partner works full-time. Changes in fathers' work hours thus have become more supportive of wives' employment, but the size of fathers' work hour reductions remains substantively small. While our results suggest Germany is making progress towards equitable gender arrangements in the division of paid work, this progress remains slow. (Vorlage)
In:
European sociological review, Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 1985, 33(2017), 6, Seite 823-838, 1468-2672
In:
volume:33
In:
year:2017
In:
number:6
In:
pages:823-838
Language:
English
Author information:
Pollmann-Schult, Matthias 1973-
