GenIX Working Papers

Susan Himmelweit (2013) Satisfaction with and relative benefit from household resources: Germany across regions and over time, a gendered analysis. GenIX working paper no. 7

Abstract: This working paper uses measures of satisfaction with household income (SWHI) in the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), 1992 -2008, and a method developed during a cross-national comparative project to investigate the factors affecting how benefits from their common household income accrue to men and women in male/female couples, particularly the effects of gender roles as captured by partners' employment statuses.

Making a contribution to household resources through employment rather than domestic contributions was found to lead to greater SWHI, both individually and relatively to a partner's SWHI. Further, men's SWHI in both parts of Germany depended more on their own employment status than their partners'. This was not true of women's SWHI in the West, but in the East women were more concerned about their own employment status. In the East, but not the West, women lost out more, in terms of their relative benefit from household resources, from being unemployed than men did.

There was some convergence over time in the effects of the man's and the woman's unemployment. In the West, this convergence was more marked in effects on women's than on men's SWHI. In the East, the effect of men's unemployment on women's SWHI fell, while men became somewhat more concerned when their partner was unemployed. These results are consistent with an increasing egalitarianism in gender role attitudes in the West and the continuation of more egalitarian employment expectations in the East. However, results for the East may also reflect the limit to gender equality where it is does not also involve a shift in gender roles in the home.

Jerome De Henau (2013). Gender and intra-household entitlements. A cross-national longitudinal analysis. GenIX working paper no. 6

Abstract:This paper examines how gender roles of men and women in couples influence their answers to a question on satisfaction with their financial situation and to what extent these effects relate to differences in gender role attitudes and gender regimes across 11 countries of the European Union. Using data from the European Community Household Panel (for the years 1995-2001), we applied a method devised by the research project to isolate gender effects through the way in which male and female contributions to the household's financial situation are differently assessed by the partners. We also tested whether there is also a gendered impact on the relative financial benefits that each partner receives from a change in their situation (De Henau and Himmelweit, 2013a). Countries in the north of Europe and especially those where gender role attitudes and public policy favour more equal gender roles (namely Denmark, Finland, France and Belgium) were distinguished from more conservative countries in the south (such as Italy, Greece, Portugal) and also Austria. Women's relative benefits from full-time employment are less pronounced in the latter group owing to welfare regimes more in tune with male breadwinner models in which the female contribution in the form of employment is not valued as much as in the north.

Jerome De Henau and Susan Himmelweit (2012). Examining public policy from an intra-household gendered perspective: UK, Australia and Germany since the mid-nineties. GenIX working paper no. 5

Abstract: Policies can affect many different gender inequalities. Relatively little attention has been paid to effects on gender inequalities within households, in particular sharing of roles and access to resources. This paper is the first to analyse a range of policy changes over the last fifteen years in Australia, Germany and the UK to compare their potential effects on intra-household gender inequalities. Contradictory effects of different elements of policies are highlighted and developed by looking at how financial support to families via direct state transfers and work incentives can improve household members' financial positions relative to each other but at the same time can reinforce a traditional division of roles along gender lines, affecting women's longer-term financial security inside or outside their current household. All three countries have implemented substantial reforms over the period considered but very little could be identified as genuinely tackling intra-household inequalities, with activation policies favouring a one-and-a-half-earner model.

A revised version of this paper has now been published as: De Henau, J. and Himmelweit, S., 2013 Examining Public Policy from a Gendered Intra-Household Perspective: Changes in Family-Related Policies in the UK, Australia and Germany since the Mid-Nineties. Oñati Socio-Legal Series [online], 3 (7), 1222-1248.

Jerome De Henau and Susan Himmelweit (2012). 'Comparing welfare regimes by their effects on intra-household inequalities', GenIX working paper no. 4.

Abstract: Gender analyses of policies tend to evaluate their effects on gender equality in access to the labour market and on gender roles within households; these have been examined both within and across different welfare state regimes (see e.g. Lewis, 2009). However relatively little attention has been paid to effects on gender inequalities in access to and control over households' financial resources. This chapter analyses the effect of employment status, to capture individuals' paid and unpaid contributions to their household, on changes in satisfaction with household income, taken as an indicator of relative access to household resources. Intra-household gender inequalities can arise through policies' effects both on the intrahousehold division of contributions and on the salience of that division to men's and women's access to household resources. Results are compared for three countries, Australia, Germany and the UK, chosen, not only because of the characteristics of their welfare regimes, but also because they all collect good household panel data that can be used for empirical investigation of such intra-household effects, and some comparative results are presented in this chapter.

A revised version of this paper was published as a chapter in Garces, J. Monsonis, I. and Ferri, M., Sustainability and transformation in European Social Policy. Peter Lang: 117–146.

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Susan Himmelweit, Cristina Santos, Almudena Sevilla, & Catherine Sofer (2012). Sharing of resources within the family and the economics of household decision making. GenIX working paper No.3.

Abstract: Over the last thirty years, economic models have been developed that recognize that potentially conflicting interests may shape household decisions and the sharing of resources within families. This paper provides an overview of how decision-making within households has been modeled within economics, presents the main benefits and limitations of those models and critically assesses their usefulness to those from other disciplines interested in the within-household distribution of resources. Our main focus is on the theory, empirical application and results of the currently dominant collective models, but we also look at developments that led up to them and some subsequent extensions and alternative approaches. Given the weight placed by policy-makers and others on economic and quantitative evidence, it is incumbent on researchers of all disciplines to understand the achievements and limitations of the models used, explicitly or implicitly, to produce such evidence and the assumptions that lie behind them.

A revised version of this paper was published in June 2013 in the Journal of Marriage and Family 75: 625–639

Due to copyright restrictions, this file is not available for public download until 30 June 2014. Request a copy from the authors

Jerome De Henau and Susan Himmelweit (2012). 'Unpacking intrahousehold gender differences in partners' subjective benefits from household income', GenIX working paper no. 2.

Abstract: The authors examine how contributions to household resources, indicated by employment status, influence satisfaction with household income (SWHI) for members of male/female couples. They take changes in SWHI, which may differ within couples, to indicate changes in perceived benefits from their common household income, benefits that can go beyond individual consumption. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey for 2,396 couples from 1996 to 2007, three gender effects are identified. First, men predominate in making the type of contribution that most positively influences SWHI, namely full-time employment. Second, the effect of contributions depends on the gender of the contributor, with men's employment being more influential than women's. Third, within couples, making the more influential contribution, as men tend to do, leads to relatively greater SWHI. The authors conclude that gender asymmetry in contributions made to household resources is one way in which gender inequalities invade and inhabit households.

A revised version of this paper was published in June 2013 in the Journal of Marriage and Family 75: 611–624

Due to copyright restrictions, this file is not available for public download until 30 June 2014 . Request a copy from the authors

Jerome De Henau and Susan Himmelweit (2010). 'Cooperation and conflict within couples: A longitudinal analysis of the gendered distribution of entitlement to household income', GenIX working paper no. 1.

Abstract: This paper uses individual answers on satisfaction with household income to investigate the determinants of individual entitlement to household resources. We decompose an individual's entitlement into a household element reflecting shared interests and a relative element where interests of household members diverge. We use British household panel data to show that the effects of variables on both household and relative entitlements can be gendered: directly through having effects that are asymmetric by gender or indirectly, even when direct effects are symmetric, if those variables are differently distributed by gender.