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Activation programmes for women with a partner in Germany: Challenge or replication of traditional gender roles
Author(s) -
Kopf Eva,
Zabel Cordula
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of social welfare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1468-2397
pISSN - 1369-6866
DOI - 10.1111/ijsw.12249
Subject(s) - earnings , unemployment , german , welfare , demographic economics , scale (ratio) , political science , labour economics , business , economic growth , economics , physics , accounting , archaeology , quantum mechanics , law , history
In 2005, Germany implemented major welfare benefit reforms that encourage an adult worker model of the family. In this study, we hypothesised that, despite these reforms, women's assignments to activation programmes would in practice still tend to replicate the degree of labour market attachment to which they had become accustomed relative to their partner in the past. We compared programme entries between women in former male breadwinner , dual earner , no‐earner and female breadwinner households and applied event‐history analysis to large‐scale administrative data. Our findings showed that in western Germany – but not in eastern Germany – women's assignments to activation programmes indeed replicated their prior labour market attachment relative to their partner. Key Practitioner Message: • Among women receiving Unemployment Benefit II in Germany, women with partners participate in activation programmes less often; • This tendency applies especially to western German women with less employment experience and lower former earnings than their partners; • A framework should be devised to inquire about previously non‐employed women's interests in ALMP participation and offer them such opportunities .