Non-employment, gender norms and the risk of couple separation in eastern and western Germany

Abstract

This paper examines and compares the impact of non-employment – more precisely female and male unemployment and female labour-market inactivity – on cohabiting and married couples’ separation risk in eastern and western Germany. Although Germany has experienced substantial changes in the spheres of family and labour market in recent decades, differences between the former East and West Germany persist even over 30 years after reunification. Applying conditional logistic fixed-effect models to German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, I find the following: in western Germany, where – despite a trend towards more egalitarian gender norms – traditional gender norms still prevail, male unemployment increases couples’ separation risk, whereas female labour-market inactivity reduces it. Examining change across two birth cohorts – women born in or before 1971 and women born after 1971 – I find for western Germany that the effects of male and female unemployment on couple separation appear to be converging, and the relationship-stabilising effect of female labour-market inactivity seems to be diminishing. This is in line with the trend towards egalitarian gender norms in that region. In eastern Germany, both female and male unemployment have a relationship-destabilising effect in the older birth cohort, which might reflect the more egalitarian gender norms there. However, the relationship-destabilising effect of male and female unemployment is diminishing, and can no longer be found in the younger birth cohort. Unexpectedly, for eastern German women born after 1971, labour-market inactivity is relationship-stabilising, which was not the case in the older cohort.