Topic Gender

Divorce as a Liberation from Violence: The Role of Legal Protections and Women’s Shelters

Does increased legal infrastructure empower victims to leave abusive relationships? Structural barriers often prevent victims of intimate partner violence from seeking help and leaving their abuser, with two-thirds of female victims in Europe neither reporting incidents to the police nor accessing support services. I study the introduction of the 2002 Violence Protection Act in Germany, which...

GENELLI

Gender inequality remains a pressing issue in our society. Women are underrepresented in many decision-making positions and the gender pay gap remains at 16%. Whether or how language contributes to forming and transporting gender stereotypes has sparked intense scientific and public debate. In German, masculine role nouns are still often used in a generic sense to address people of unknown gender ...

Gender gaps in the labour market

This project investigates the underlying causes of gender gaps in the labor market, emphasizing skill mismatches, task divisions, social norms, and implicit gender biases. By employing quasi- and survey-experimental methods with data from Germany and OECD countries, the research examines policies like parental leave and public child care. It explores the effects of these factors on skill...

Policy Change and Women’s and Men’s Earnings around Divorce: Evidence from the German Maintenance Reform

This paper examines the gendered impact of divorce on earnings and the role of the social policy context in shaping this relationship. In particular, it focuses on a policy reform enacted in Germany in 2008 that overturned previous ex-spousal support rules. Data come from the administrative records of the German Public Pension Fund. Drawing on a fixed- effects model, we study the behaviour of women ...

DIW Women Executives Barometer: Method Report and Codebook for the Waves 2015-2025

In the annual DIW Women Executives Barometer, we document the share of women on the executive and supervisory boards of the largest companies in Germany. We separately analyse different groups of companies, among which there are the 200 companies with the highest turnover in Germany outside the financial sector (top 200 companies), all companies listed in the German stock index DAX (DAX companies) ...

DIW Managerinnenbarometer: Methodenbericht und Codebuch zu den Wellen 2015-2025

Das DIW Berlin untersucht jährlich die Repräsentation von Frauen in Vorständen und Geschäftsführungen sowie in Aufsichts- und Verwaltungsräten der größten Unternehmen in Deutschland. Die Ergebnisse werden in Form des DIW Managerinnenbarometers veröffentlicht. Dieses erfasst mittlerweile insgesamt mehr als 500 Unternehmen in verschiedenen Kategorien, darunter die – gemessen an ihrem Umsatz – 200 größten ...

Gender Pay Gap Increases with Age among All Educational Backgrounds

The average gender pay gap in Germany is 16 percent according to the most recent data. On the occasion of the 2025 Equal Pay Day, this Weekly Report using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data shows that considerable differences according to age and level of education are hiding behind this average gap. For example, the gender pay gap increases significantly with age for people of all educational backgrounds ...

Despite Rising Shares of Women on Executive And Supervisory Boards, Gender Parity Remains A Far-off Goal

In 2024, the share of women on the top decision-making boards of the largest companies in Germany increased. A solid 19 percent of all executive board members at the 200 largest companies are now women, and almost 26 percent of members at the 40 largest listed companies are women. The financial sector is also catching up in this regard. Moreover, legal requirements, such as the inclusion requirement ...

The Gender Gap in Fair Earnings Increases with Age Due to Higher Age Premium for Men

This study explores how gender and age interact in shaping beliefs about fair pay through a factorial survey experiment conducted with German employees. Respondents evaluated hypothetical worker descriptions varying in age, gender, and earnings. While no gender gap in fair earnings was found for the youngest hypothetical workers, a significant gap favoring men emerged with increasing age. This suggests ...

The division of paid and care work