In East Germany, women’s participation in the labor market is traditionally high, while in the West, it started to show a steady growth since the 1970s. At the same time, we observe little change in the distribution of unpaid housework between couples. Compared with their partners, women in West and East Germany do a considerably larger share of unpaid housework. Different theories have been introduced to explain this phenomenon. On the one hand, bargaining theory argues that women’s higher share in housework is related to their lower participation in the labor market, which leads to lower bargaining power within the relationship. On the other hand, social constructivist theories argue that women use housework to “establish” their gender in social interactions. Previous empirical findings support partly bargaining theoretical, partly social constructivist approaches. This project is designed to directly compare both theories using an online survey. Due to numerous differences in women’s participation in the labor market as well as gender role attitudes, the survey is conducted in East and West German cities. People of working age are asked to evaluate different fictitious scenarios (so-called vignettes) about how satisfied they would be with the respective division of paid work and housework between the described couples.
Chair of Sociology with a focus on Gender Studies - Prof. Dr. Susanne Strauß
Satisfaction with the division of housework among couples - a factorial survey
