Can Regional Gender Ideologies Account for Variation of Gender Pay Gaps? The Case of Germany

Maik Hamjediers

doi:10.3390/socsci10090347

Abstract

While research often invokes gender disparities in wage-determining characteristics to explain gender pay gaps, why these gender disparities and gender pay gaps vary across contexts has received less attention. Therefore, I analyze how subnational gender ideologies predict gender pay gaps in two ways: as directly affecting gender pay gaps and as indirectly predicting gender pay gaps through intermediate gender disparities in determinants of wage. The analyses are based on German survey data (SOEP 2014–2018) supplemented with regional-level statistics. First, I leverage regional differences in predictors of gender ideologies to estimate region-specific gender ideologies. Mapping these gender ideologies across Germany reveals substantial regional variation. Second, multi-level models provide region-specific gender disparities in wage determinants and gender pay gaps. Results reveal that traditional gender ideologies are associated with women gaining less labor market experience and working less often in full-time jobs or supervising positions. In addition to this indirect association, gender ideologies directly predict the extent of adjusted gender pay gaps. These associations contribute novel evidence on regional variation of gender ideologies and how they can underlie explanations often invoked for gender pay gaps.

Highlights

On average, women earn less than men, and this gender pay gap has been quite stable in recent decades (Blau and Kahn 2017; Finke et al 2017)
In accordance with previous research, the regional variation of the extent that women are paid less—or even more—than men unfolds along prevalent spatial dimensions: East Germany displays a gender pay gap 10.9 percentage points lower (Diff. = −0.116, p < 0.001), and the gender pay gap is lower in urban centers and agglomerated labor market regions than in rural regions (Diff. = 0.024, p = 0.037)
This study provides novel evidence on how contextual gender ideologies can account for regional variations in gender pay gaps within Germany

Summary

Introduction

Women earn less than men, and this gender pay gap has been quite stable in recent decades (Blau and Kahn 2017; Finke et al 2017). While men’s historical advantage in educational attainment vanished (Quenzel and Hurrelmann 2010), greater domestic responsibilities for women—especially in childbearing and -rearing—are currently more relevant for the emergence of gender pay gaps (Kleven et al 2019). They limit women’s labor force engagement and interrupt their employment trajectories, and women are more likely to hold jobs allowing time-flexibility to resolve family–work conflicts (Goldin 2014). As part-time jobs and time-flexible jobs come with the costs of providing less opportunities for career progression, fewer women reach managerial positions (Holst and Wrohlich 2018)

Methods

Results

Conclusion