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Tabea Naujoks , Rostock University
This paper investigates the preferred working hours and their mismatch with actual working hours for men and women, with a particular emphasis on parenthood status. The primary aim is to identify which groups successfully achieve their preferred working hours and to uncover potential differences between same-sex and different-sex couples in this context. Recent findings suggest that younger fathers desire reduced working hours to spend more time with their children, while mothers are often constrained to involuntary part-time employment. While previous research predominantly focused on work hours preferences of partners in different-sex unions, this paper takes on a new perspective by including the gender composition in couples as an explanatory factor. This study leverages data from ten waves of the German Microcensus (2010-2019), collected annually from 1% of households in Germany. The initial descriptive analysis reveals that women in different-sex couples with children wish to work an average of four hours more per week than they currently do, while their same-sex counterparts desire a one-hour increase, on average. In contrast, men in different-sex couples work an average of 40 hours per week and are more successful in realizing their preferred work hours. However, men in same-sex couples aim to reduce their working hours by approximately one hour per week. By using OLS regressions, I analyze how those differences are related to parenthood, gender composition in the couple, education, household income, and partner characteristics such as work hours and educational level.
Presented in Session 39. Flash session Values and Attitudes about Family and Gender