Abstract

The project investigates the role money plays within couples’ everyday lives in respect to gendered patterns of power and inequality. The key question is if and how female income changes traditional patterns of ‘doing couple’ and thus reinforces individualization. Based on qualitative data drawn form interviews with dual earner couples the scope of the research is extended. By means of a partly standardized survey it is explored how couples’ ways of dealing with money within different population groups are linked to changes in the welfare state regime, that foster individual responsibility for social security provision. The project is a cooperation between WZB (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Berlin), IAB (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Nürnberg) and INFAS (Institut für angewandte Sozialforschung, Bonn).