Gender, family status, and parliamentary careers in the German Bundestag

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study tackles several important unanswered questions about gender, family status, and parliamentary representation. We use the case of the German Bundestag to explore gender gaps in family status among elected politicians and subsequently to ask whether and how parenthood affects MPs’ advancement in their political careers. Using an original dataset of biographical details for German MPs from 1994 to 2017, we find gender gaps in both marital and parental status among parliamentarians, with men being more likely to report being parents than women, and women being more likely to specify that they have no children. We also find variation across German political parties. Most importantly, we show that parenthood reduces the likelihood of serving multiple terms and that this parenthood penalty is greater for women.