Many young parents in Germany say they want both partners to work, spend time with their children and share household duties. Yet in practice traditional patterns endure: women are far more likely to move to part-time hours and men remain more often the main earners. Statistics from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office for 2025 show the gender pay gap remains substantial.
Sociologist Jutta Allmendinger, an honorary professor at Free University of Berlin and former president of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, stresses this mismatch is not about intentions. When couples are asked what they would do if they had a child now, she notes, “80% of men say they would reduce their working hours and they would want an equal split.” In reality, however, outcomes frequently diverge from those stated intentions.
A key reason is income differences: because men typically earn more, couples often decide that women should take parental leave or cut back to part-time — a choice that reduces women’s prospects for promotion and leadership. Germany’s tax system amplifies the problem by rewarding households where one partner earns much more than the other, effectively encouraging unequal divisions of paid and unpaid work. Allmendinger and others argue these tax advantages should be removed to foster true equality.
Regional legacies also matter. In the former East Germany fewer women work part time and career interruptions tend to be shorter, reflecting a long-standing norm of both parents working. West Germany historically promoted a single-earner family model. Those differences persist over a lifetime: women in the East tend to face smaller pension gaps relative to men than women in the West.
Allmendinger has observed increasing polarization among women: some are choosing to return to traditional home-centered roles, others are focusing on careers or opting not to have children. While she cautions this is not the majority position, the trend is widening.
Her prescription is structural change rather than piecemeal fixes. She argues the standard 40-hour workweek, which does not recognize unpaid childcare, is unrealistic for many families. She proposes a 33-hour workweek across the board — with men modestly reducing and women modestly increasing average hours — a shift she believes would preserve total labor volume while making it easier for both parents to share childcare and household tasks. She also calls for genuine career flexibility over a lifetime: people should be able to work around 28 hours during care-intensive phases and more hours at other stages, instead of forcing family formation to coincide with peak career moments.
Quality childcare and schools are central to these choices. Rising interest in homeschooling, Allmendinger notes, reflects concerns about the public education system and underlines how schooling and childcare quality shape family decisions.
She points to international examples of progress: Iceland has topped the Global Gender Gap Report for years and has trialed shorter working hours. Advances in artificial intelligence and wider adoption of job-sharing for full-time roles make reduced hours more practicable, she says: “It works marvelously.” These examples, she argues, show what is possible and that the situation is not intractable.
This piece was translated from German and edited by Sarah Hucal.