Gender Inequality As Part of a New Family Model: A Case Study on Policy Changes and Institutional Dualization in a Conservative Welfare State Type

In the post-war era in Germany both family life and labor market regulations were governed by three strongly interwoven institutions: The family model presumed a male breadwinner in combination with a housewife marriage. Care work was delegated to women to make men fully available to labour market. They typically held a standard employment relationship (a full-time and permanent employment contract). As a result of collective bargaining overall in core industrial sectors and services dominated by large or public employers at least the so-called Facharbeiter (medium skilled industrial workers) gained a family wage that guaranteed a decent living standard for the whole family. Due to social and economic changes these institutions faced creeping erosion that accelerated due to the introduction of activating labour market policies since the end of the 1990s.

In accordance with other results on conservative welfare states we confirm an institutional dualization in unemployment protection and family policies. Labour market structures, however, are more segmented. In female dominated sectors we see a high level of flexible employment and a high incidence of low wage employment. Decreasing wages of male earners make a second income indispensable for most family households to pass the poverty line and even more to achieve a medium living standard. All together changed institutional structures support of the modernized breadwinner model, giving high incentives for mothers’ part-time employment. New forms of social inequality arise along the combination of particular employment patterns and family forms. ‘Losers’ of this development are over all households of single mothers.