Beliefs about women's labour in the reunified Germany, 1991-2004

This research investigates the mechanisms of change in gender beliefs in East and West Germany since reunification. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS), we examine how processes of cohort replacement and of intra-cohort change contributed to the changes in beliefs about gender ideology and about the consequences of women working for pay that occurred from 1982 to 2004 in the former West Germany and from 1991 to 2004 in the former East Germany. We find that while changes in gender beliefs occurred through both cohort replacement and within-cohort change in West Germany, changes in East Germany primarily occurred through processes of intra-cohort change. Heterogeneity in levels of schooling and employment status are important in accounting for variation in gender beliefs. We find support for the conclusion that there are continued changes in gender beliefs in the reunified Germany across time. However, we do not find that beliefs converged in the East and West following reunification. In fact, focusing on the period following reunification, we find that the gap in beliefs between the East and West actually increased between 1991 and 2004.