Cracking Under Pressure? Gender Role Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment During COVID-19 in Germany

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to gender equality, particularly affecting working parents due to disruptions in daycare and school operations. It also impacted labor market opportunities for both men and women. This study investigates shifts in gender role attitudes toward maternal employment in Germany during pandemic lockdowns and subsequent periods of eased restrictions, using combined data from 2008 to early 2022. During the lockdown in early 2021, the study documents a significant decline in egalitarian attitudes, especially for men with dependent children and women without dependent children in the household. The results are discussed and interpreted against the background of various theoretical approaches. During periods of eased restrictions in early 2022, the trend reversed, and gender role attitudes recovered significantly for the same groups. The findings imply that pandemic-related changes in gender role attitudes toward maternal employment were largely transitory.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Gender role attitudes became less egalitarian during the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown in Germany.

• When restrictions lifted, egalitarian gender role attitudes returned, indicating the changes were largely transitory.

• Mothers of dependent children, who shouldered most of the additional care burden, demonstrated remarkable stability in views on gender roles.

• Norm-setting, social diffusion, cognitive dissonance, and defense of a cultural worldview explain variance by gender and presence of children in the household.

• Public support for maternal employment and childcare infrastructure is important for shaping societal norms.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender role attitudes
• women’s labor force participation
• COVID-19
• daycare and school closures
• childcare

JEL Codes:

• J16
• J18
• J13

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mathias Huebener

Mathias Huebener is economist and a senior researcher at the Federal Institute for Population Research (BIB). He is also a research affiliate at IZA Bonn, a Fellow of the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (CIDER), and a member of the Education Economics Committee of the German Economic Association (Bildungsökonomischer Ausschuss des Vereins für Socialpolitik). His research focuses on education, family, and labor economics. Mathias Huebener earned his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2018.

Natalia Danzer

Natalia Danzer is Professor of Economics with a focus on Empirical Economics and Gender at Freie Universität Berlin. In her research, she focuses on policy-relevant issues and policy evaluations in the areas of labor market and family economics, gender, (early) child development, and subjective well-being/life satisfaction. Her work has appeared in the Economic Journal, Economic Policy, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Journal of Public Economics, among others.

Astrid Pape

Astrid Pape is senior adviser at the Confederation of German Employers Association (BDA). She is also a guest researcher at Freie Universität Berlin, where she earned her PhD in 2022. Both her research and her current work for German employers focus on female employment and the reconciliation of work and family life.

Pia Schober

Pia Schober is Professor of Sociology with a focus on Microsociology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research interests include gender socialization, gender inequalities in employment and family work, childcare and child outcomes, and family policies. Her work has been published in well-known sociological and interdisciplinary journals, such as European Sociological Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, Gender & Society, Work, Employment and Society, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

C. Katharina Spiess

C. Katharina Spiess is Director of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). She holds the professorship of Population Economics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Her research focuses on population studies, particularly on education and family issues. Her work has been published in well-known field journals, such as Journal for Population Economics, Journal of Heath Economics, Labour Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and Economics of Education Review. She is a member of various research networks, expert groups, and commissions, including the Scientific Advisory Board for Family Issues at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs.

Gert G. Wagner

Gert G. Wagner, who was deceased in January 2024, was an economist and social scientist. He was Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and Research Associate at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. From 1989 to 2011 he was director of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, from 2011 to 2013 he was President of the German Institute for Economic Research Berlin (DIW Berlin), where he was also member of the Executive Board from 2011 to 2017. From 2002 to 2018 he was Professor of Economics at Technische Universität Berlin (TUB).