Prof Dr Gundula Zoch was interviewed by the American news organization Vox about her research on family policy measures in Germany and their impact on working parents, especially mothers. In her conversation with journalist Rachel Cohen, Zoch shed light on the lessons the US could possibly take from Germany's family policy reforms to improve its childcare system. Cohen and Zoch further discussed, why the public childcare system in East Germany supports mothers more effectively than in the West, the role of part-time and full-time employment, and whether declining birth rates could lead to more frugal family policies. 

You can read the article on the background conversation here. There is also a (paywalled) audio version on Apple News which you can find here.

Johanna Olga Sauer has joined the Working Group for Social Inequality as a doctoral researcher and lecturer in the BA and MA study programs. Ms. Sauer has previously completed a Double Degree Master in Sociology: a Master in Sociology from the Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg (DE) and an English Research Master in Sociology and Demography from the University Pompeu Fabra Barcelona (ES). In her master's thesis “Waiting for the Golden Years: Differences in Retirement Age between Migrants and Natives in Europe”, she used SHARE data to investigate differences in the retirement age between individuals with and without a migration background.

In many countries, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on people's lives and has also changed trust in politics, institutions and the media. Using representative data from repeat surveys of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the study conducted as part of the BMBF's Pepp-Cov project shows for the first time for Germany that political trust increased significantly during the first year of the pandemic, particularly in relation to the national executive and legislature. However, a decline in this increase is already evident from spring 2021, without a clear link to local infection rates or stricter infection control measures.

The full article is freely available to read here

You can find the article here (paywall). For members of the University of Oldenburg, the article is available free of charge within the university network.

In the last few days, numerous media have reported on the new research results of the WorkMum project in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). The results, published in the journal Bevölkerungsforschung Aktuell 3/2024 by Susanne Schmid, Mathias Huebener, Malin Mahlbacher and Gundula Zoch, show that children of younger mothers in Germany have both lower mathematical and less pronounced socio-emotional skills than children of mothers who were 30 or older at birth. One explanation for this is the lower education and income of younger mothers. You can find a selection of press reports here

Susanne Schmid, researcher in the DFG project "Work Mum" (PI Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch), started her research stay at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona this week. Funded by the prestigious ECSR Visitor Grant, she will spend the next five weeks there to continue her research on the "Work Mum" project, present first results at the Centro de Estudios Demográficos (CED) as well as at DemoSoc and gain new scientific impulses.

The full article is freely available to read here

Two new publications from the BMBF project Pepp-Cov clearly demonstrate how the Covid-19 pandemic has altered trust in politics, institutions, and media in Germany. Using representative data from repeated surveys conducted by the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch and Dr. Steffen Wamsler show that political trust significantly increased during the first year of the pandemic, especially concerning the national executive and legislative. However, this increase began to decline as early as the spring of 2021, with no clear explanation linked to local infection rates or government imposed restriction measures.

Individuals with lower levels of education initially experienced a stronger increase in trust. In the pandemic's second year, 2022, trust in the government remained above pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, people in Germany now express less trust in media and the police compared to before the crisis. Notably, the educational differences analysed here are not associated with cognitive abilities but are closely linked to varying levels of digital competencies.

Both studies can be read as preprints here and here als Preprints nachzulesen.

The full article is freely available to read here.

Linda Jespersen studied Sociology at the University of Bremen and is currently completing her masters’ degree in Social Sciences at the University of Oldenburg. Her doctoral thesis revolves around the relationship between social inequalities and rates of COVID-19 infection.

Interested students who would like to write a thesis in the field of social inequality can find more information on writing and registration here. Further information on the dates of the colloquium can be found at the beginning of the semester in StudIP.

Why is unpaid work only valued when it is done outside of the family? Why do women who perform important care work earn so little? In a radio interview, Prof Dr Gundula Zoch discusses the significance of care work in the context of gender pay inequality and the poverty of older women. The conversation touches on political measures that aim to promote gender equality, such as incentives for fathers to take parental leave. But are these incentives sufficient? The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the additional challenges women face due to inequalities in care work. How can we address these issues? Could evaluating parenting work in pension calculations or changing the division of labor in the care sector help? The fact is: improving the gender care gap is essential for reducing the gender pay gap.

You can listen to the interview here (minute 45:10, in German).

The study shows, based on longitudinal data from the NEPS-Starting Cohort 6, that the Covid-19 pandemic has slightly reduced participation in job-related further education in Germany. The decline was more pronounced in the area of non-formal further education and for informal learning in attendance-based events than for informal learning with analogue or digital media. While reading specialist literature decreased moderately, learning on computers and the internet remained surprisingly stable during the pandemic. Despite the lack of on-site learning opportunities and the reluctance of many companies to invest in further education, the crisis did not lead to a collapse in overall participation in job-related further training. Due to greater declines in participation among employed individuals with initially very high participation rates, the originally strong social, professional, and company-related differences have even slightly decreased with the pandemic.

The full article is freely available to read here.

The results of the November election for the speaker panel of the Family Section of the German Sociological Association are in: Gundula Zoch will be taking on the role of speaker alongside Anne Kristin Kuhnt, Nicole Hiekel, and Zachary van Winkle. Congratulations and many thanks to all re-elected and newly elected members and their work for the association.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly changed social, economic, political, and cultural life. But how have political attitudes and associated societal and political participation actually changed and in what contexts? What social and regional disparities are significant in this regard? These questions are being examined by the new BMBF project Pepp-Cov, led by Prof Dr Gundula Zoch and Dr Johannes Kiess (University of Leipzig). The three-year project focuses on the question of how educational trajectories and acquired competencies are related to growing social inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic and thus alter political attitudes as well as societal and political participation. The BMBF is funding the joint project with about 600,000 € for 3 years. Starting in February 2023, the collaborative research project will be conducted under the scientific lead of Gundula Zoch at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories and the Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institute for Democracy Research at the University of Leipzig.

The impact of parenthood on participation in job-related training is the subject of a recent publication in Work, Employment & Society. Using longitudinal data from the National Education Panel Study (NEPS), the paper shows that the birth of a child reduces the participation in job-related training in Germany. The parenthood training penalties are particularly pronounced for mothers.

The full article is freely available to read here.

Susanne Schmid has joined the AG for Social Inequality as a doctoral researcher in the DFG-funded WorkMum project. The three-year research project investigates the role of maternal labor markets and mothers’ workplace contexts for childrens’s development.

Susanne Schmid studied sociology and communication sciences at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and worked at the German Youth Institute after completing her master's degree. Since 2021, she has been a doctoral candidate at Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Bamberg. In her doctoral thesis, she examines the causes of educational inequalities.

Are you interested in social issues, do you work independently and carefully, and would you like to be actively involved in conducting and communicating scientific research? Apply now! The research group Social Inequality of Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch is looking for two student assistants starting in October/November 2022. They will support the team in various research projects and in the preparation of teaching.

For more information, please see the job advertisement.

What needs to happen so that women and men in Germany are finally paid equally for equal work of equal value? How do we set the course for fair pay in the working world of tomorrow? How do shorter working days create equal career opportunities for women and men? These questions are examined in the Equal Pay Day Podcast with Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch.

Currently, the gender pay gap is 18 percent, or 66 calendar days of unpaid work for women. The next Equal Pay Day will therefore take place on March 7, 2023. The Equal Pay Day campaign, an initiative of Business and Professional Women (BPW) Germany e.V. sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), draws attention to the existing gender pay gap even beyond the campaign day. More at: https://www.equalpayday.de/

Interested students who would like to write a thesis in the field of social inequality can find more information on writing and registration here. Further information on the dates of the colloquium can be found at the beginning of the semester in StudIP.

Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch will spend the semester break as a visiting researcher at the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford. Consultation hours will therefore be offered online only. Please send a short email with your questions and three suggested appointments.

The employment of mothers has increased significantly in many industrialised countries, and therefore over time family life and the environment in which children grow up have changed. The compatibility of work and family varies considerably with employment conditions, e.g. due to occupation, workplace, region and by social groups. This can result in significant differences in children's early learning environments. But what exactly are the influences of employment conditions and local labour markets on child development? This question is being investigated in a new DFG project led by Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch and Dr. Mathias Hübener (DIW Berlin). As things stand, the DFG funding amounts to a total of around 440,000 € and is scheduled to run for 36 months from autumn 2022. Two PhD student positions (65%) and student assistantships will be offered soon. Interested parties are invited to contact the working group Sociology of Social Inequalities via email. More information can be found here.

Starting in the summer semester of 2022, the working group Sociology of Social Inequalities will offer a supporting colloquium for writers of a BA or MA thesis. In the colloquium, methods of scientific working will be revised and deepened, and the contents of the theses will be discussed together. This way, students can also support each other in the preparation of their theses.

Those interested in writing a thesis in the field of social inequality can find more information on the topic agreement and registration here. Further information on the dates of the colloquium will be uploaded in StudIP at the beginning of the semester.

As part of the Early Career Fellowship Program, Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch will be in regular contact with over 500 international WFRN Fellows who are also conducting research on the compatibility of family and work. Acceptance as a Fellow is accompanied by an invitation to the WFRN Conference in New York. This year's conference, entitled "Work-Family Justice: Practices, Partnerships & Possibilities", is dedicated to the current challenges of reconciling work and family.

The US-American Work and Family Researchers Network (WFRN) has been networking academic work and family researchers from a broad range of fields worldwide since 2010. The network's comprehensive and multifaceted program supports doctoral researchers in their research and teaching, in expanding their academic network and their long-term careers.

How the Corona pandemic affects the satisfaction of men and women is the subject of a recent publication in the journal "Gender, Work & Organisation". Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the authors show that the life satisfaction of all respondents dropped significantly during the pandemic. Childless women and mothers are hit particularly hard. Faced with closed schools and childcare facilities, mothers often assume responsibility for childcare more than fathers. Societal concerns and feelings of loneliness also weigh more heavily on the life satisfaction of women than that of men.

The complete article is freely accessible here.

The Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellency in Work-Family-Research nominates outstanding research articles in the field of family and work research every year.

The award is given to English-language publications in international journals with outstanding use of methods and strong theoretical references. In her publication, Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch examines how educational inequalities in the labour force participation of mothers have changed against the background of the expansion of daycare centres in East and West Germany. The results show that mothers with higher educational qualifications in particular benefit from more childcare options. The article was published in the Journal of European Social Policy.

The nominated article is freely accessible here. Further information on the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award nominations can be found here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made access to face-to-face learning opportunities – the most common form of adult learning – impossible. This gap could be filled by learning opportunities via apps or online videos that are flexibly available in terms of time and space.

Against this background, a team of researchers from the University of Oldenburg, LIfBi, WZB and IAB is investigating the extent to which employees have increased their use of online learning opportunities in the first months of the pandemic. Based on data from the National Education Panel (NEPS), the study show that the use of work-related online learning opportunities did indeed increase during the first months. At the same time, however, educational inequalities in the use of such opportunities also increased. Above all, respondents with a university degree use the opportunity of online learning significantly more often.

The complete article is freely accessible here.

Dr. Gundula Zoch is appointed Assistant Professorship for Sociology of Social Inequalities at the Institute for Social Sciences of the University of Oldenburg. She was previously a research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg. Dr. Zoch will continue her association with the LIfBi as a Research Fellow in order to implement ongoing and upcoming research projects.

After studying sociology and economics in Leipzig and London, Dr. Zoch worked as a research assistant at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. She was then a doctoral scholar at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Bamberg, funded by the German Excellence Initiative. She received several awards for her dissertation thesis, which dealt with the expansion of childcare in East and West Germany. In 2020, she also received the Bettina Paetzold Teaching Award from the University of Bamberg.

In her research, Dr. Zoch deals with the causes and consequences of social inequalities in employment and family work. Her empirical analyses of large longitudinal surveys such as the National Education Panel focus on continuing differences between East and West Germany, for example in maternal employment or prevailing role models. In third-party funded projects, she is currently investigating the effects of the Corona pandemic and how job loss and employment insecurity influence the development of children.