Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification: Results from a Natural Experiment
Dados Bibliográficos
| AUTOR(ES) | |
|---|---|
| AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) | Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology; University of Cologne; Albertus-Magnus-Platz 50823 Köln Germany, Department of Social Sciences, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Bienroder Weg 97, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany, Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, D-10099 Berlin, Germany |
| ANO | 2020 |
| TIPO | Artigo |
| PERIÓDICO | European Sociological Review |
| ISSN | 0266-7215 |
| E-ISSN | 1468-2672 |
| EDITORA | Oxford University Press |
| DOI | 10.1093/esr/jcaa015 |
| CITAÇÕES | 12 |
| ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
| MD5 |
386804c0eb681b61d18e78a2800b116c
|
Resumo
Modernization theorists' 'rising tide hypothesis' predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification with West Germany and the resulting incorporation into a conservative welfare state and market economy. Based on nationally representative, pooled cross-sectional data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 1991 to 2016, we apply variance function regression to examine the impact of German reunification—akin to a natural experiment—on the average levels and dispersion of gender ideology. The results show: (i) East German cohorts socialized after reunification hold less egalitarian ideologies than cohorts socialized in the GDR, disrupting the rising tide. (ii) East German cohorts hold more egalitarian ideologies than West German cohorts, but the East-West gap is less pronounced for post-reunification cohorts. (iii) Cohorts in East Germany show higher conformity with gender ideology than their counterparts in West Germany; yet conformity did not change after reunification. (iv) Younger cohorts in West Germany show higher conformity with gender ideology than older cohorts.