The Impact of Unemployment on Male Gender Role Attitudes in Germany

Germany has a long-standing tradition as a welfare state with a pronounced male breadwinner orientation in social and family policy. In the last decade there have been some reforms in the direction of a more gender egalitarian “adult worker model”, particularly for the unemployed.

In this paper we want to explore the impact of unemployment on men’s gender role attitudes within this new policy framework, assuming that unemployment might lead to a more egalitarian view on gendered work-family attitudes. The new labour market policy in Germany has a general notion that assigns obligations to work to both male and female recipients of unemployment benefits which might lead to less pronounced male breadwinner attitudes among unemployed men living in a couple.  

For women it has been shown that employment status has an influence on gender role attitudes. In explaining this phenomenon, it has been argued that there are two mechanisms at work: first, there is a selection effect implying that women with more employment oriented attitudes have a higher probability to be employed. Second, there is an adjustment of attitudes, that is, changing one’s own attitudes in response to employment status in order to reduce “cognitive dissonance”.

We conduct an empirical analysis of the relationship between gender role attitudes and unemployment for men and women who live in couple households. For our analysis we use the German panel study “Labour Market and Social Security” which is covering the general population. In a first step we analyse the impact of unemployment on gender role attitudes controlling for other covariates influencing gender role attitudes and unemployment status. We are particularly interested in the effect parenthood has on this relationship. Fatherhood, in particular, might lead to a persistence of male breadwinner attitudes among men as it fosters male responsibility for family income.