Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification: Results from a Natural Experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 814-828
Author(s):  
Christian Ebner ◽  
Michael Kühhirt ◽  
Philipp Lersch
Keyword(s):  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
German Reunification ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
East German ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Modernization theorists’ ‘rising tide hypothesis’ predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification with West Germany and the resulting incorporation into a conservative welfare state and market economy. Based on nationally representative, pooled cross-sectional data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 1991 to 2016, we apply variance function regression to examine the impact of German reunification—akin to a natural experiment—on the average levels and dispersion of gender ideology. The results show: (i) East German cohorts socialized after reunification hold less egalitarian ideologies than cohorts socialized in the GDR, disrupting the rising tide. (ii) East German cohorts hold more egalitarian ideologies than West German cohorts, but the East-West gap is less pronounced for post-reunification cohorts. (iii) Cohorts in East Germany show higher conformity with gender ideology than their counterparts in West Germany; yet conformity did not change after reunification. (iv) Younger cohorts in West Germany show higher conformity with gender ideology than older cohorts.

scholarly journals Characteristics of those most vulnerable to employment changes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationally representative cross-sectional study in Wales

2021 ◽  
pp. jech-2020-216030
Author(s):  
Benjamin J Gray ◽  
Richard G Kyle ◽  
Jiao Song ◽  
Alisha R Davies
Keyword(s):  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Employment Outcomes ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Exact Test ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThe public health response to the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental impact on employment and there are concerns the impact may be greatest among the most vulnerable. We examined the characteristics of those who experienced changes in employment status during the early months of the pandemic.MethodsData were collected from a cross-sectional, nationally representative household survey of the working age population (18–64 years) in Wales in May/June 2020 (n=1379). We looked at changes in employment and being placed on furlough since February 2020 across demographics, contract type, job skill level, health status and household factors. χ2 or Fisher’s exact test and multinomial logistic regression models examined associations between demographics, subgroups and employment outcomes.ResultsOf our respondents, 91.0% remained in the same job in May/June 2020 as they were in February 2020, 5.7% were now in a new job and 3.3% experienced unemployment. In addition, 24% of our respondents reported being placed on furlough. Non-permanent contract types, individuals who reported low mental well-being and household financial difficulties were all significant factors in experiencing unemployment. Being placed on ‘furlough’ was more likely in younger (18–29 years) and older (60–64 years) workers, those in lower skilled jobs and from households with less financial security.ConclusionA number of vulnerable population groups were observed to experience detrimental employment outcomes during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted support is needed to mitigate against both the direct impacts on employment, and indirect impacts on financial insecurity and health.

Kitchen Debates

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Weinreb
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Daily Food ◽  
East German ◽  
Home Cooking ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Time And Energy

This chapter compares East German and West German attitudes toward women working outside of the home during the 1960s and 1970s. The two German states had radically different attitudes toward female employment. West Germany discouraged it, believing that women should remain out of the workforce to care for their families, especially their children. East Germany encouraged female labor as essential for meeting the country’s economic needs; women’s employment was seen as necessary for their self-fulfillment and as having a positive impact on their children’s health. Despite these differences, both countries perceived home cooking as women’s sole responsibility, as well as a vital necessity. This belief, among other things, determined the countries’ quite different school lunch policies. Ultimately, the normalization of home cooking and a “family meal” shaped women’s relationship to wage labor by demanding that their time and energy be dedicated to daily food work.

The Impact of Immigration on Competing Natives' Wages: Evidence from German Reunification

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Prantl ◽  
Alexandra Spitz-Oener
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
German Reunification ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Labor Market Conditions ◽  
East German ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Direct Measures

After the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, a sudden, unexpected, and massive influx of East German migrants hit the entire West German labor market. The context is well suited for investigating whether immigration influences natives' wages and how the effects depend on product and labor market conditions. We propose direct measures of potential migration with exogenous variation, compare migrants to natives with similar capabilities, and segment the labor market along predetermined margins. We find that immigration can have negative effects on the wages of natives. These effects surface when product and labor markets are competitive but not under regulations that restrict the entry of firms and provide workers with a strong influence on firms' decision making.

scholarly journals Longitudinal access and exposure to green-blue spaces and individual-level mental health and well-being: protocol for a longitudinal, population-wide record-linked natural experiment

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. e027289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Mizen ◽  
Jiao Song ◽  
Richard Fry ◽  
Ashley Akbari ◽  
Damon Berridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Impact

IntroductionStudies suggest that access and exposure to green-blue spaces (GBS) have beneficial impacts on mental health. However, the evidence base is limited with respect to longitudinal studies. The main aim of this longitudinal, population-wide, record-linked natural experiment, is to model the daily lived experience by linking GBS accessibility indices, residential GBS exposure and health data; to enable quantification of the impact of GBS on well-being and common mental health disorders, for a national population.Methods and analysisThis research will estimate the impact of neighbourhood GBS access, GBS exposure and visits to GBS on the risk of common mental health conditions and the opportunity for promoting subjective well-being (SWB); both key priorities for public health. We will use a Geographic Information System (GIS) to create quarterly household GBS accessibility indices and GBS exposure using digital map and satellite data for 1.4 million homes in Wales, UK (2008–2018). We will link the GBS accessibility indices and GBS exposures to individual-level mental health outcomes for 1.7 million people with general practitioner (GP) data and data from the National Survey for Wales (n=~12 000) on well-being in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. We will examine if these associations are modified by multiple sociophysical variables, migration and socioeconomic disadvantage. Subgroup analyses will examine associations by different types of GBS. This longitudinal study will be augmented by cross-sectional research using survey data on self-reported visits to GBS and SWB.Ethics and disseminationAll data will be anonymised and linked within the privacy protecting SAIL Databank. We will be using anonymised data and therefore we are exempt from National Research Ethics Committee (NREC). An Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP) application (Project ID: 0562) to link these data has been approved.The research programme will be undertaken in close collaboration with public/patient involvement groups. A multistrategy programme of dissemination is planned with the academic community, policy-makers, practitioners and the public.

Human Capital as a Fertility Determinant in an Economically Developed Homogeneous Population

1982 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-231
Author(s):  
ANN SCHWARZ-MILLER
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Empirical Relationships ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Homogeneous Population ◽  
Regression Techniques ◽  
Desired Family Size ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
General Time

This study analyzes the relationship between human capital and fertility in West Germany, an economically developed homogeneous society that has been characterized by low and declining birthrates, a rise in educational levels, and increasing female labor force participation for more than a decade and a half. The theoretical links between human capital and fertility are first explored within the framework of an informal household optimization model drawn from the economics of fertility literature. Cross-sectional empirical relationships are then assessed using OLS regression techniques. The impact of educational measures on desired family size is found to be statistically weaker than in prior studies. Evidence is presented for the existence of a general time trend in tastes as a source of falling fertility. It is argued that these results may stem from the existence of strong norms and other special characteristics of the society, casting doubt on the validity of the economic model in such a setting.

scholarly journals Salmon migration and fertility in East Germany – An analysis of birth dynamics around German reunification

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-2018) ◽  
pp. 247-268
Author(s):  
Michaela Kreyenfeld ◽  
Anja Vatterrott
Keyword(s):  
East Germany ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
West Germany ◽  
German Population ◽  
German Reunification ◽  
Region Of Origin ◽  
Regional Mobility ◽  
Deutsche Rentenversicherung ◽  
East German

This paper uses rich administrative data from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Fund) to describe changes in the timing and the spacing of births that occurred in the period following German reunification. We examine differences in the birth dynamics of East Germans, West Germans, and women who migrated between the two parts of Germany in these years. As the pension registers provide monthly records on whether a person is living in East or West Germany, they also allow us to examine the role of regional mobility in birth behaviour. In particular, we test the “salmon hypothesis”, which suggests that migrants are likely to postpone having a child until after or around the time they return to their region of origin. Our investigation shows that a large fraction of the cohorts born in 1965-74 migrated to West Germany after reunification, but that around 50% of these migrants returned to East Germany before reaching age 40. The first birth risks of those who returned were elevated, which suggests that the salmon hypothesis explains the behaviour of a significant fraction of the East German population in the period following German reunification.

scholarly journals Factors associated with cyber-victimization among immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada: A cross-sectional nationally-representative study.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Kenny ◽  
Lisa Merry ◽  
Brownbridge A. Douglas ◽  
ML Urquia
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Cyber Victimization ◽  
Prevalence Odds Ratio ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Potential Factors

Abstract Objectives There is a paucity of research on patterns of cyber-victimization in minority groups, including immigrants. This study aimed at identifying individual, interpersonal and contextual characteristics associated with cyber-victimization among immigrants and non-immigrants.Methods We drew on nationally representative data from adolescents and adults in the Canadian General Social Survey on victimization (2014). Multivariable logistic regression was employed to identify potential factors associated with cyber-victimization in the last 12 months, stratified by immigrant status and sex.Results Among 27,425 survey respondents, the weighted prevalence of cyber-victimization in the last 12 months was 2.1% among immigrants and 2.3% among non-immigrants. Cyber-victimization rates differed significantly by sex among immigrants (2.8% for males vs. 1.4% for females), but not among non-immigrants (2.1% for males vs. 2.4% for females). While most other factors associated with cyber-victimization were similar for immigrants and non-immigrants, we found pronounced associations of past child maltreatment (adjusted prevalence odds ratio [aPOR] 4.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.76, 8.52) and residence in an unwelcoming neighbourhood (aPOR 5.08, 95% CI 2.44, 10.55) with cyber-victimization among immigrants that were diminished or absent among non-immigrants. Additionally, sex-stratified analyses among immigrants showed cyber-victimization to be strongly associated with having a mental health condition (aPOR 3.50, 95% CI 1.36, 8.97) among immigrant males only, and with perceived discrimination (aPOR 4.08, 95% CI 1.65, 10.08), as well as being under 24 years old (aPOR 3.24, 95% CI 1.09, 9.60) among immigrant females.Conclusions Immigration status and sex were differentially associated with cyber-victimization. Findings support the salience of a social-ecological perspective and gender-stratified analyses to better elucidate complex pathways linking cyber-victimization to potential gender-based health inequities among immigrants.

scholarly journals Covid-19 Estimating the burden of symptomatic disease in the community and the impact of public health measures on physical, mental and social wellbeing: a study protocol

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
M. Isabela Troya ◽  
Ali Khashan ◽  
Patricia Kearney ◽  
Ella Arensman ◽  
Philipp Hoevel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Network Model ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Telephone Surveys ◽  
Symptomatic Disease ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Social Wellbeing ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
June July ◽  
The Impact

Introduction: Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Since then, governments have implemented unprecedented public health measures to contain the virus. This study will provide evidence to inform responses to the pandemic by: i) estimating population prevalence and trends of self-reported symptoms of Covid-19 and the proportions of symptomatic individuals and household contacts testing positive for Covid-19; ii) describing acceptance and compliance with physical-distancing measures, explore effects of public health measures on physical, mental and social wellbeing; iii) developing a mathematical network model to inform decisions on the optimal levels of physical distancing measures. Methods: Two cross-sectional nationally-representative telephone surveys will be conducted in Ireland using random digit-dialling, with response rates estimates based on proportion of non-operational and non-answering numbers. The first survey with four waves in May and June will address adherence to social distancing measures and whether the respondent or other household members are or have been unwell during the preceding two weeks with one or more symptoms of Covid-19. The second survey with three waves in June, July and September will address knowledge, attitudes, and compliance towards physical-distancing measures and physical, mental and social wellbeing. The mathematical network model will be developed for all-Ireland (on various levels of spatial granularity including the scale of counties and electoral divisions) based on outputs from both cross-sectional surveys and relevant publicly available data to inform decisions on optimal levels and duration of physical distancing measures. Discussion: This study will contribute to our understanding of the impact and sustainability of public health measures of the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings will have long-lasting benefits, informing decision-making on the best levels, and duration of physical-distancing measures, balancing a range of factors including capacity of the health service with the effects on individuals’ wellbeing and economic disruption. Findings will be shared with key policy-makers.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 130 (629) ◽  
pp. 1445-1470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quentin Lippmann ◽  
Alexandre Georgieff ◽  
Claudia Senik
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
East Germany ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Male Breadwinner ◽  
East German

Abstract 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.

scholarly journals Loneliness from young adulthood to old age: Explaining age differences in loneliness

2020 ◽  
pp. 016502542097104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise C. Hawkley ◽  
Susanne Buecker ◽  
Till Kaiser ◽  
Maike Luhmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Household Income ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Living Alone ◽  
Nonlinear Relationship ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Nationally Representative

Prior research in non-U.S. samples has found a complex nonlinear relationship between loneliness and age. This research has shown that established predictors of loneliness—poor health, being unmarried, living alone, and having infrequent social interactions—help to explain age differences in loneliness. However, while some variables were found to be universal predictors of loneliness at all ages, others were relevant in specific age groups only. In this study, we describe age differences in frequency of loneliness from age 18 to 89+ years in the U.S. and examine age differences in predictors of loneliness from age-specificity and age-normative perspectives. We used cross-sectional nationally representative data from the General Social Survey ( N = 2,477) and found a nonlinear relationship between age and loneliness that closely resembles prior research. However, we found no evidence for age-specific predictors of loneliness. Household income, household size, marital status, health, and frequency of socializing were “universal” predictors of loneliness; their associations with loneliness did not differ in strength with age. Our hypothesis that individuals who deviated from age-specific norms would experience more intense loneliness was not supported. Implications for research and loneliness interventions are discussed.

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