Topic Labor and Employment

Parental Leave Policy and Long-run Earnings of Mothers

Paid parental leave schemes have been shown to increase women’s employment rates but to decrease their wages in case of extended leave duration. In view of these potential trade-offs, many countries are discussing the optimal design of parental leave policies. We analyze the impact of a major parental leave reform on mothers’ long-term earnings. The 2007 German parental leave reform replaced a means-tested ...

Gender Parity on Top Boards Is Still a Far-off Goal, and It Is Time for Companies to Take Action: Editorial

Number of Women on Boards of Large Companies Keeps Growing: Momentum from Inclusion Requirement, However, Is Waning

The upward trend in women’s representation on executive and supervisory boards of major companies in Germany continued in 2022, although the overall momentum has slowed yet again. Growth on executive boards in particular has slowed, as the most recent DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer shows: Following a significant increase at the 200 largest companies from 2020 to 2021, there was only a one-percentage-point ...

Corporate Reporting Provides Insight into Companies’ Commitment to Gender Equality

Many companies in Germany must provide information beyond financial figures in their annual reports. For some years now, legislators have increasingly required information on non-financial aspects, such as the shares of women in leadership positions. Using a quantitative text analysis of annual reports, this second report in the 2023 DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer shows that the major publicly ...

Executive Boards Remain Dominated By Men, but Change Is Finally Coming: Editorial

Markedly More Women on Executive Boards Of Large Companies; Inclusion Requirement Seemingly Already Having an Effect

There was a significant increase in the number of women on executive boards of large companies in Germany from 2020 to 2021 after years of slow progress: In fall 2021, there were 139 women on the executive boards of the 200 largest companies, 38 more than in 2020. This is an increase of a good three percentage points to almost 15 percent, the largest seen since the beginning of the DIW Berlin Women ...

While Gender Quotas for Top Positions In the Private Sector Differ across EUCountries, They Are Effective Overall

This second report in the DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer 2022 explores the designs and effects of gender quotas across Europe, coming to the conclusion that they are an effective instrument for increasing the share of women in top positions at large companies. Furthermore, the quotas differ greatly between the countries, for example in regard to the number of companies subject to the quota, ...

Gender Gaps in Employment, Working Hours and Wages in Germany: Trends and Developments over the Last 35 Years

Sharing the Caring? The Gender Division of Care Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany

The COVID-19 pandemic and related closures of daycare centers and schools significantly increased the amount of care work done by parents. There is much speculation over whether the pandemic increased or decreased gender equality in parental care work. Based on representative data for Germany we present an empirical analysis that shows greater support for the latter rather than the former hypothesis. ...

Fertility as a Driver of Maternal Employment

Based on findings from high-income countries, typically economists hypothesize that having more children unambiguously decreases the time mothers spend in the labor market. Few studies on lower-income countries, in which low household wealth, informal child care, and informal employment opportunities prevail, find mixed results. Using Mexican census data, I do not find evidence for negative employment ...