Work and Family in Women's Lives in the German Democratic Republic

Bibliographic Data

ID2363166
AuthorsHeike Trappe (0000-0002-6109-9732, Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education, Berlin, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume23
Issue4
Pages354-377
Publication date1996-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWork and Occupations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0730-8884 • E-ISSN: 1552-8464
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0730888496023004003
OpenAlexW2103945536
LanguageEN
Citations received33
References cited11

This article examines the impact of changing social policies on strategies to balance family responsibilities and employment used by women who were living in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). New life-history data for 4 birth cohorts that cover the different periods of this socialist society's 40-year existence allow comprehensive analyses of women's life courses. In the context of changing levels of support to combine work and family, the article attempts to show what strategies women used and how their chances for upward mobility were influenced by these adjustments. Systematic differences regarding labor force participation, quality of work, and adaptations to family demands are revealed among women who entered the labor force and formed their families at different times. The considerable change in women's employment patterns can only be explained by taking into account the social policies that were embedded in women's opportunity structures

Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Family life · Geography · German · Opportunity structures · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Work (physics) · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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