In Progress

From Exposure to Belief: Neighborhood Female Employment and Gender Norms
Around Maternal Employment with Marie-Fleur Philipp and Kerstin Ostermann

Abstract: Individuals’ beliefs regarding maternal employment play a pivotal role in reproducing gender inequalities in employment and family life. Understanding their formation is key for developing effective, evidence-based policies to promote gender equality. While prior research has linked gender beliefs to personal characteristics and national policies, the influence of local contexts remains underexplored. This paper investigates how neighborhood-level female employment patterns shape beliefs about maternal full-time work in Germany. We argue that neighborhoods function as socio-cultural reference frames where local norms and opportunity structures reflect and reinforce gendered expectations and normative beliefs. Using the German Panel Study “Labour Market and Social Security” (2011 and 2016) and aggregated administrative data on the level of 1x1km grid cells, we link respondents’ beliefs to local female employment shares. Our study (1) introduces a micro-geographical perspective to move beyond broad regional analyses; (2) illuminates how local employment patterns shape normative beliefs regarding maternal employment; and (3) goes beyond common gender ideology measures regarding maternal employment by capturing beliefs regarding the appropriate age of a child at which mothers can return to work. We find that higher rates of marginal employment among female neighbors are positively, and higher rates of full-time employment are negatively associated with support for mothers’ later return to full-time work even if we control for the neighborhood’s general employment level. The study provides with a rich combination of survey and population data new insights into how exposure to female employment patterns at the neighborhood level shapes individuals’ normative beliefs regarding maternal employment.

Unpacking work-care arrangements of families in Germany: The role of regional and sociodemographic differences for daycare and maternal employment attitudes with Marie-Fleur Philipp

Abstract: Despite women’s increasing participation in the labor market and significant expansions in formal daycare, the work-care arrangements of families with toddlers in Germany are still characterized by parental care and reduced maternal employment. Not only the limited availability of daycare spots but also widespread ideals of parental childcare and traditional views toward maternal employment contribute to the persistence of traditional work-care arrangements. Using data from the German PASS-Panel (2011, 2016, 2022), we analyze respondents‘ attitudes regarding the ideal age for a child to begin a) regular daycare for a few hours and b) full-time daycare outside the family as well as their attitudes regarding when a mother could work a) at least 15 hours per week and b) full-time (30+ hours). Therefore, we provide a more nuanced description of work-care attitudes than previous studies, which relied on broadly formulated items with little variance. We focus on differences across social groups and between East and West Germany. Support for part-/full-time employment is temporally lagged by a few months after the appropriate age for the child to start regular daycare and full-time daycare, respectively. Although attitudes between East and West Germany show slow convergence over time, mainly due to changes among West Germans, East Germans still think that children can attend (full-day) daycare at earlier ages and that their mothers can return to (full-time) work earlier. Personal affectedness in terms of gender and parenthood and individuals‘ socioeconomic background in terms of education and migration background strongly shape individuals‘ attitudes in both regions.

Legitimacy and Power in Workplace Negotiations: A Relational Inequality Approach with Laura Lükemann

Abstract : Why do some employees successfully negotiate over pay, promotions, or flexible working arrangements — while others do not even try? And does it matter not only who negotiates, but also what they negotiate about? This project investigates how employees‘ social status characteristics, including gender, migration background, and qualification level, shape workplace claims-making processes and thereby contribute to persistent inequalities in working conditions and career trajectories. Drawing on Relational Inequality Theory (RIT), we argue that status-based power asymmetries influence both the likelihood of making a claim and its perceived legitimacy: lower-status groups may be less likely to assert claims, and when they do, their claims may be evaluated less favourably by those in positions of organizational power. A key contribution of the project is its focus on the subject of claims. We argue that status characteristics do not only determine who negotiates, but also which claims are deemed socially acceptable and which remain unspoken. The empirical analyses draw on the 2025 WSI Labour Force Survey, covering more than 5,000 employees in Germany.