Gender inequality in employment trajectories, later life income, and wealth

My presentation will cover results from two research projects on gender inequality in life courses and later life financial well-being in Germany, which both rely on linked survey-administrative data. The first study examines how the life courses of couples in East and West Germany are associated with women’s income in later life using multichannel sequence analysis. By applying a couple perspective, we overcome the individualistic approach in most previous research analysing women’s old-age income. Detailed monthly information on spouses’ employment and earnings trajectories from age 20 to 50 for the birth cohorts 1925–1965 stems from SHARE-RV, a data linkage of the administrative records of the German public pension insurance with the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

Seven clusters of couples’ life courses are identified and linked to women’s individual income in later life. By means of a cohort comparison, a polarization in dual-earner and male-breadwinner type clusters is identified. The former increasingly diverge into successful female-breadwinner constellations and those with both partners in marginalized careers. The latter polarize between persistent male-breadwinner constellations and those in which women increase their labour market engagement. Second, I will introduce first results from the project "Life Course, Assets and Retirement Income in East and West Germany". It examines gender-specific differences in the interplay of employment histories and the accumulation of wealth comparing East and West Germany. Data basis is the SOEP-RV that links the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) survey to respondents’ Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Insurance) records.

Joint work with: Babette Bühler, Clara Overweg, Andreas Weiland

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