Susanne Strauß
Biographic Data
| ID | 3580849 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susanne Strauß |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susanne |
| FAMILY NAME | Strauß |
| SIGNATURE | STRAUSS S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Konstanz |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9875-2179 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 126 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A blessing in disguise? How digital teaching formats reduced dropout intentions among studying parents during the Covid-19 crisis
The COVID-19-pandemic accelerated the adoption of distance learning in current higher education. However, dropout research has rarely examined the role of digital teaching formats on student retention. This paper examines how such formats can reduce dropout intentions by mitigating time constraints, focusing specifically on students with children, who clearly struggled with time shortages due to increased childcare responsibilities during the pan…
The gendered division of housework in times of Covid-19
Fairness Evaluations of Higher Education Graduates' Earnings
Educational and occupational horizontal segregation contribute significantly to economic inequalities, especially in contexts with a strong correspondence between fields of study and occupational outputs, such as in Germany. However, the extent to which individuals perceive disparities in economic returns across different fields of study as fair and the factors influencing these fairness evaluations remain largely unexplored. This study aims to u…
Is My Wage Fair? Validating Fairness Perceptions among Women and Men
The authors examine gender differences in perceptions of the fairness of one's own pay. This work differs from previous studies, as the authors not only assess whether women are as likely as men to perceive their pay as unfair at the same absolute wage levels. Instead, they use an innovative methodology based on linked employer-employee data. This makes it possible to compare subjective perceptions of (un)fair pay with the predicted pay of compar…
Who perceives lower wages for women to be fair? How perceptions of the fairness of men's and women's wages vary by firm and workplace characteristics
Previous research has shown that gender pay gaps are perceived as fair or justified, not only by men but also by women. In this paper we contribute to the discussion of a biased evaluation of fair wages and assess whether the organizational context has an impact on fairness perceptions. We use unique data from a vignette study that was part of a representative online survey of 5,556 employees in 532 larger firms (> 100 employees) in Germany which…
Discrimination or a Competitive Climate? Why Women Cannot Translate Their Better High School Grades into University Grades
While girls have better grades than boys in high school, this does not translate into better performance of young women, as compared to young men, in university. Due to the high signalling value of university grades for subsequent income and employment outcomes, this has important consequences for gender inequalities at labour market entry. However, previous studies have not yet examined the potential barriers that might limit women’s ability to …
Women’s stress during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany and the Netherlands
Does context matter? The gendered impact of study conditions on dropout intentions from higher education
This paper aims to understand how study conditions impact men and women’s dropout intentions differently. As a first step, we analyse the gendered impact of three aspects of study conditions that were at the centre of the Bologna Process: achievement norms, the structure of the curriculum and practical components in the study programme. As a second step, we aim to understand how individual-level differences between men and women (performance, aca…
Why do women opt for gender-atypical fields of study? The increasing role of income motivation over time
Gender segregation in fields of study represents an important explanation for gender inequalities in the labor market, such as the gender wage gap. Research shows that horizontal gender segregation in higher education persists for a variety of reasons, including women’s greater communal goals and men’s greater motivation to earn high incomes. Yet with the male breadwinner model in decline, a key question is whether women’s motivation to earn high…
Individual Achievement, Person-Major Fit, or Social Expectations
While a large body of research addresses both subject choice and student dropout in higher education, much less is known about switching the initially chosen major. Therefore, we ask why students switch their major in higher education and analyse this for the case of Germany, taking the timing and the degree of such switches (within and across subject groups) into account. Based on the extended rational choice framework, we identify three aspects…
Long-Term Trends in the Gender Income Gap within Couples
Coupled women typically have lower earnings than their male partners. This gender income gap within couples has declined over time, but we lack information about the drivers behind the decline. Here, we analyze the role of increased participation in education and the labor market, as well as changes in social policies, on the decline of the gender income gap within couples in West Germany from 1978 to 2011, using Microcensus data. We show that wo…
Protected through Part-time Employment? Labor Market Status, Domestic Responsibilities, and the Life Satisfaction of German Women during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 lockdown measures have challenged individuals to reconcile employment, childcare, and housework. This article addresses whether these challenges have reduced life satisfaction among German women by focusing on their labor market status and drawing upon a topical online survey (Kantar) collected in Germany at two points in time: May 2020 and November 2020. We find that part-time employed women were better protected against a decline i…
Multiple engagement
The article investigates the conditions of multiple engagement in the private and public realm in the second half of life. More specifically, I look at the relationship between informal care-giving and formal volunteering in a country-comparative way. Based on longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement, 2004–2015, I investigate the 50+ population in 13 European countries. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity by using c…
Work–family balance in the second half of life
This article investigates how different types of informal caregiving – upward, lateral and downward – impact men's and women's decisions to retire or to reduce their working hours, and how welfare policy characteristics moderate the linkage between informal care provision and employment participation. The analyses are based on six waves from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We exploit the data's longitudinal structur…
Economic disturbances in the Covid-19 crisis and their gendered impact on unpaid activities in Germany and Italy
This article investigates whether changes in women’s and men’s contributions to household income in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in unpaid work. The current health crisis represents a unique opportunity to explore these topics, because the restrictive measures imposed during the lockdown are likely to have generated an unexpected shock to both domestic work and individual ability to contribute to hous…
Spousal care-giving arrangements in Europe. The role of gender, socio-economic status and the welfare state
Spouses (and partners) are the most important source of care in old age. Informal care for frail spouses is provided by both sexes and across all socio-economic backgrounds and welfare policy contexts. There are, however, interesting differences as to whether spouses care alone, receive informal support from other family members or formal support from professional helpers, or outsource the care of their spouse completely. The present article cont…
Productive Ageing Regimes in Europe
Why do occupations dominated by women pay less? How 'female-typical' work tasks and working-time arrangements affect the gender wage gap among higher education graduates
Even though women today constitute the majority of higher education graduates, they still earn considerably less than their male counterparts. Previous research demonstrates that occupational sex segregation is important for understanding the gender wage gap, since occupations dominated by women pay less; yet less is known about why this is the case. This article explores two possible mechanisms: the devaluation of 'female-typical' work tasks and…
Female-typical Subjects and their Effect on Wage Inequalities among Higher Education Graduates in Germany
In the search for an explanation of wage inequalities between men and women, it is often argued that women's disadvantages on the labour market are the result of their lower investment in human capital. However, this argument loses for at a time when highly educated women are outperforming men in terms of educational attainment. But even within the group of higher education graduates, gender differences remain in the form of gender-typical enrolm…
Einkommenseinbußen durch Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland
Lohnungleichheiten zwischen Akademikerinnen und Akademikern
Auf der Suche nach einer Erklärung für die bestehenden Lohnungleichheiten zwischen Männern und Frauen mit Hochschulabschluss untersucht der Artikel drei verschiedene Erklärungsansätze: Erstens die humankapitaltheoretische Erklärung, dass Frauen durch die Wahl von weniger berufsspezifischen Studienfächern finanzielle Nachteile auf dem Arbeitsmarkt erfahren; zweitens die These der Abwertung von frauendominierten Studienfächern, wie sie von feminist…
Ehrenamt in Deutschland und Großbritannien – Sprungbrett zurück auf den Arbeitsmarkt
Volunteering and social inclusion
Volunteering and Social Inclusion
A theoretical approach to employment and volunteering as two distinct forms of social inclusion - Comparison of German and British social policies - Empirical results on the interrelation between volunteering and labour market participation in individual life courses
Why do occupations dominated by women pay less? How 'female-typical' work tasks and working-time arrangements affect the gender wage gap among higher education graduates
Even though women today constitute the majority of higher education graduates, they still earn considerably less than their male counterparts. Previous research demonstrates that occupational sex segregation is important for understanding the gender wage gap, since occupations dominated by women pay less; yet less is known about why this is the case. This article explores two possible mechanisms: the devaluation of 'female-typical' work tasks and…
Lohnungleichheiten zwischen Akademikerinnen und Akademikern
Auf der Suche nach einer Erklärung für die bestehenden Lohnungleichheiten zwischen Männern und Frauen mit Hochschulabschluss untersucht der Artikel drei verschiedene Erklärungsansätze: Erstens die humankapitaltheoretische Erklärung, dass Frauen durch die Wahl von weniger berufsspezifischen Studienfächern finanzielle Nachteile auf dem Arbeitsmarkt erfahren; zweitens die These der Abwertung von frauendominierten Studienfächern, wie sie von feminist…
Economic disturbances in the Covid-19 crisis and their gendered impact on unpaid activities in Germany and Italy
This article investigates whether changes in women’s and men’s contributions to household income in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in unpaid work. The current health crisis represents a unique opportunity to explore these topics, because the restrictive measures imposed during the lockdown are likely to have generated an unexpected shock to both domestic work and individual ability to contribute to hous…
Spousal care-giving arrangements in Europe. The role of gender, socio-economic status and the welfare state
Spouses (and partners) are the most important source of care in old age. Informal care for frail spouses is provided by both sexes and across all socio-economic backgrounds and welfare policy contexts. There are, however, interesting differences as to whether spouses care alone, receive informal support from other family members or formal support from professional helpers, or outsource the care of their spouse completely. The present article cont…
Female-typical Subjects and their Effect on Wage Inequalities among Higher Education Graduates in Germany
In the search for an explanation of wage inequalities between men and women, it is often argued that women's disadvantages on the labour market are the result of their lower investment in human capital. However, this argument loses for at a time when highly educated women are outperforming men in terms of educational attainment. But even within the group of higher education graduates, gender differences remain in the form of gender-typical enrolm…
Ehrenamt in Deutschland und Großbritannien – Sprungbrett zurück auf den Arbeitsmarkt
Long-Term Trends in the Gender Income Gap within Couples
Coupled women typically have lower earnings than their male partners. This gender income gap within couples has declined over time, but we lack information about the drivers behind the decline. Here, we analyze the role of increased participation in education and the labor market, as well as changes in social policies, on the decline of the gender income gap within couples in West Germany from 1978 to 2011, using Microcensus data. We show that wo…
Multiple engagement
The article investigates the conditions of multiple engagement in the private and public realm in the second half of life. More specifically, I look at the relationship between informal care-giving and formal volunteering in a country-comparative way. Based on longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement, 2004–2015, I investigate the 50+ population in 13 European countries. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity by using c…
Productive Ageing Regimes in Europe
Work–family balance in the second half of life
This article investigates how different types of informal caregiving – upward, lateral and downward – impact men's and women's decisions to retire or to reduce their working hours, and how welfare policy characteristics moderate the linkage between informal care provision and employment participation. The analyses are based on six waves from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We exploit the data's longitudinal structur…
Is My Wage Fair? Validating Fairness Perceptions among Women and Men
The authors examine gender differences in perceptions of the fairness of one's own pay. This work differs from previous studies, as the authors not only assess whether women are as likely as men to perceive their pay as unfair at the same absolute wage levels. Instead, they use an innovative methodology based on linked employer-employee data. This makes it possible to compare subjective perceptions of (un)fair pay with the predicted pay of compar…
Who perceives lower wages for women to be fair? How perceptions of the fairness of men's and women's wages vary by firm and workplace characteristics
Previous research has shown that gender pay gaps are perceived as fair or justified, not only by men but also by women. In this paper we contribute to the discussion of a biased evaluation of fair wages and assess whether the organizational context has an impact on fairness perceptions. We use unique data from a vignette study that was part of a representative online survey of 5,556 employees in 532 larger firms (> 100 employees) in Germany which…
Protected through Part-time Employment? Labor Market Status, Domestic Responsibilities, and the Life Satisfaction of German Women during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 lockdown measures have challenged individuals to reconcile employment, childcare, and housework. This article addresses whether these challenges have reduced life satisfaction among German women by focusing on their labor market status and drawing upon a topical online survey (Kantar) collected in Germany at two points in time: May 2020 and November 2020. We find that part-time employed women were better protected against a decline i…
Volunteering and social inclusion
Volunteering and Social Inclusion
A theoretical approach to employment and volunteering as two distinct forms of social inclusion - Comparison of German and British social policies - Empirical results on the interrelation between volunteering and labour market participation in individual life courses
Lohnungleichheiten zwischen Akademikerinnen und Akademikern
Auf der Suche nach einer Erklärung für die bestehenden Lohnungleichheiten zwischen Männern und Frauen mit Hochschulabschluss untersucht der Artikel drei verschiedene Erklärungsansätze: Erstens die humankapitaltheoretische Erklärung, dass Frauen durch die Wahl von weniger berufsspezifischen Studienfächern finanzielle Nachteile auf dem Arbeitsmarkt erfahren; zweitens die These der Abwertung von frauendominierten Studienfächern, wie sie von feminist…
Ehrenamt in Deutschland und Großbritannien – Sprungbrett zurück auf den Arbeitsmarkt
Einkommenseinbußen durch Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland
Female-typical Subjects and their Effect on Wage Inequalities among Higher Education Graduates in Germany
In the search for an explanation of wage inequalities between men and women, it is often argued that women's disadvantages on the labour market are the result of their lower investment in human capital. However, this argument loses for at a time when highly educated women are outperforming men in terms of educational attainment. But even within the group of higher education graduates, gender differences remain in the form of gender-typical enrolm…
Why do occupations dominated by women pay less? How 'female-typical' work tasks and working-time arrangements affect the gender wage gap among higher education graduates
Even though women today constitute the majority of higher education graduates, they still earn considerably less than their male counterparts. Previous research demonstrates that occupational sex segregation is important for understanding the gender wage gap, since occupations dominated by women pay less; yet less is known about why this is the case. This article explores two possible mechanisms: the devaluation of 'female-typical' work tasks and…
Productive Ageing Regimes in Europe
Economic disturbances in the Covid-19 crisis and their gendered impact on unpaid activities in Germany and Italy
This article investigates whether changes in women’s and men’s contributions to household income in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in unpaid work. The current health crisis represents a unique opportunity to explore these topics, because the restrictive measures imposed during the lockdown are likely to have generated an unexpected shock to both domestic work and individual ability to contribute to hous…
Spousal care-giving arrangements in Europe. The role of gender, socio-economic status and the welfare state
Spouses (and partners) are the most important source of care in old age. Informal care for frail spouses is provided by both sexes and across all socio-economic backgrounds and welfare policy contexts. There are, however, interesting differences as to whether spouses care alone, receive informal support from other family members or formal support from professional helpers, or outsource the care of their spouse completely. The present article cont…
Protected through Part-time Employment? Labor Market Status, Domestic Responsibilities, and the Life Satisfaction of German Women during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 lockdown measures have challenged individuals to reconcile employment, childcare, and housework. This article addresses whether these challenges have reduced life satisfaction among German women by focusing on their labor market status and drawing upon a topical online survey (Kantar) collected in Germany at two points in time: May 2020 and November 2020. We find that part-time employed women were better protected against a decline i…
Multiple engagement
The article investigates the conditions of multiple engagement in the private and public realm in the second half of life. More specifically, I look at the relationship between informal care-giving and formal volunteering in a country-comparative way. Based on longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement, 2004–2015, I investigate the 50+ population in 13 European countries. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity by using c…
Work–family balance in the second half of life
This article investigates how different types of informal caregiving – upward, lateral and downward – impact men's and women's decisions to retire or to reduce their working hours, and how welfare policy characteristics moderate the linkage between informal care provision and employment participation. The analyses are based on six waves from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We exploit the data's longitudinal structur…
Individual Achievement, Person-Major Fit, or Social Expectations
While a large body of research addresses both subject choice and student dropout in higher education, much less is known about switching the initially chosen major. Therefore, we ask why students switch their major in higher education and analyse this for the case of Germany, taking the timing and the degree of such switches (within and across subject groups) into account. Based on the extended rational choice framework, we identify three aspects…
Long-Term Trends in the Gender Income Gap within Couples
Coupled women typically have lower earnings than their male partners. This gender income gap within couples has declined over time, but we lack information about the drivers behind the decline. Here, we analyze the role of increased participation in education and the labor market, as well as changes in social policies, on the decline of the gender income gap within couples in West Germany from 1978 to 2011, using Microcensus data. We show that wo…
Does context matter? The gendered impact of study conditions on dropout intentions from higher education
This paper aims to understand how study conditions impact men and women’s dropout intentions differently. As a first step, we analyse the gendered impact of three aspects of study conditions that were at the centre of the Bologna Process: achievement norms, the structure of the curriculum and practical components in the study programme. As a second step, we aim to understand how individual-level differences between men and women (performance, aca…
Why do women opt for gender-atypical fields of study? The increasing role of income motivation over time
Gender segregation in fields of study represents an important explanation for gender inequalities in the labor market, such as the gender wage gap. Research shows that horizontal gender segregation in higher education persists for a variety of reasons, including women’s greater communal goals and men’s greater motivation to earn high incomes. Yet with the male breadwinner model in decline, a key question is whether women’s motivation to earn high…
Discrimination or a Competitive Climate? Why Women Cannot Translate Their Better High School Grades into University Grades
While girls have better grades than boys in high school, this does not translate into better performance of young women, as compared to young men, in university. Due to the high signalling value of university grades for subsequent income and employment outcomes, this has important consequences for gender inequalities at labour market entry. However, previous studies have not yet examined the potential barriers that might limit women’s ability to …
Women’s stress during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany and the Netherlands
The gendered division of housework in times of Covid-19
Fairness Evaluations of Higher Education Graduates' Earnings
Educational and occupational horizontal segregation contribute significantly to economic inequalities, especially in contexts with a strong correspondence between fields of study and occupational outputs, such as in Germany. However, the extent to which individuals perceive disparities in economic returns across different fields of study as fair and the factors influencing these fairness evaluations remain largely unexplored. This study aims to u…
Is My Wage Fair? Validating Fairness Perceptions among Women and Men
The authors examine gender differences in perceptions of the fairness of one's own pay. This work differs from previous studies, as the authors not only assess whether women are as likely as men to perceive their pay as unfair at the same absolute wage levels. Instead, they use an innovative methodology based on linked employer-employee data. This makes it possible to compare subjective perceptions of (un)fair pay with the predicted pay of compar…
Who perceives lower wages for women to be fair? How perceptions of the fairness of men's and women's wages vary by firm and workplace characteristics
Previous research has shown that gender pay gaps are perceived as fair or justified, not only by men but also by women. In this paper we contribute to the discussion of a biased evaluation of fair wages and assess whether the organizational context has an impact on fairness perceptions. We use unique data from a vignette study that was part of a representative online survey of 5,556 employees in 532 larger firms (> 100 employees) in Germany which…
A blessing in disguise? How digital teaching formats reduced dropout intentions among studying parents during the Covid-19 crisis
The COVID-19-pandemic accelerated the adoption of distance learning in current higher education. However, dropout research has rarely examined the role of digital teaching formats on student retention. This paper examines how such formats can reduce dropout intentions by mitigating time constraints, focusing specifically on students with children, who clearly struggled with time shortages due to increased childcare responsibilities during the pan…
Economics (18 works) · Demographic economics (16 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · German (10 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (8 works) · Labour economics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Work-Family Balance Challenges (8 works)