EU FPV Thematic Network: The Social Problem and Societal Problematisation of
Men and Masculinities
GERMANY NATIONAL REPORT ON STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON MEN’S PRACTICES WORKPACKAGE 2
Ursula Mueller[1]
1. KEY POINTS
(i)In Germany a lot of statistical sources are available on labour market developments, family formation and health. The Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) produces a yearbook which covers, amongst other things, developments in the labour market, family and household formation, health, mortality, parental leave, and poverty, relying on officially produced data (registered employment, registered births, registered social insurance data, etc.). Additionally, the Federal Office produces specifically oriented series, for instance on qualifications and training. The problem with these data is that they still show the characteristics of their mode of production; their presentation often does not answer any sociological question.
(ii)Other data are collected by huge official surveys (micro-census, also available in the Statistical Yearbook) and by other agencies. The Federal Office of Medical Enlightment (Bundeszentrale fuer gesundheitliche Aufklaerung) and the Federal Criminal Institute (Bundeskriminalamt), for instance, analyse officially produced data in their fields, and also conduct studies of their own. These data often react to questions which are articulated as politically urgent. The Central Archive (Zentralarchiv fuer empirische Sozialforschung) is storing a huge amount of large scale studies and surveys that can be re-analysed for scholarly purposes; furthermore, together with ZUMA (Zentrum fuer Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen), it is aiming at developing the potentials of official statistical data for the social sciences. ZUMA is also conducting a recurrent comprehensive survey with standardized questions on social developments in Germany; researchers from outside are invited to integrate their more specific research questions from their projects into this survey and analyse the results contextualised by the larger frame (ALLBUS) .
(iii)A huge body of data is produced by investigations financed by political authorities, especially Ministries. They focus on more specific and more detailed analyses of social problems.
(iv)An infrastructure of social science information data has been built up that is going to be continued and updated regularly; the “socio-economic panel” (SOEP), for instance, informs about the development and change of working and living conditions. Its availability is nevertheless limited; to obtain an access, it is necessary to apply for a special permission the Federal Office for Statistical Data.
(v)The problem of the huge amount of data that exists is that the focuses of data production and collection, as well as the concept of the respective basic populations, differ to such an extent that, until now, it has been a detective task to find any ground for comparing and relating the data to each other in order to find comprehensive and sense-making information about men. Therefore, there is a lack of “intermediary” studies which might close the gap between theoretical concepts of masculinities and gender relations, empirical data produced in small case studies providing deeper insight into the microstructure of problems, and the official statistics level that, until now, has produced a “big picture”, albeit with mainly unclear aspects.
2. GENERAL COMMENTS ON POPULATION
In 1999 Germany had a population of 82 million composed of 40,051,000 men and 42,035,000 women (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.1.1.). Of this total, slightly more than 7 million were non-German women and men. Their gender distribution was relatively balanced with 4,011,999 non-German men and 3,331,700 non-German women (ib.3.21)
In the end of 19997, there were 7,343,60065,800 non-German men and women living in Germany. In the end of 20001998, this figure had dropped to 7,296,800319,600..79,780,3% of the non-German males were European. However, only 26,325.7% came from nations in the European Union (EU). The largest European group of men is indeed a non-EU one: it is the Turks with 27,48.4%. 54.3% of the Turkish population are men. The next largest proportion of males among European migrants are persons from former Yugoslavia at 9,310.2%. However, it should be noted here that male migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina (0,52.4%) as well as Croatia (2.87%) are counted separately (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch2001a/3.211999).
In terms of gender composition, the large Turkish group differs only slightly from the EU group. The proportion of men in the EU group is 55.8% and that of the Turks, as mentioned above, 54.3%. The group of Africans, who make up a total of 5% of non-German men, has the highest male proportion with 66.4%. The next highest male proportion is to be found in the admittedly small group of stateless persons (0.3% of the male non-German population) at 59.1%. The Asiatic migrants account for 11.0% of non-German men in Germany; their male proportion is 55.8%. The only group of migrants with a female majority is North Americans with a male proportion of 48.9%, making up 2.4% of the male population in Germany (Stat. Bundesamt 1999). (hier finde ich keine neuen Daten, vgl. Material??)
3. HOME AND WORK
Households. The changing situation in Germany is characterised by a trend toward smaller households. A glance at the period from 1991-2000[2] reveals the following picture: One-person households grew from just under 12 million (11,869,000) in April 1991 to 13,750,000 in April 2000 (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.15.). Of these almost 14 million persons living alone, 5,519,000 are men (1998). The largest group of solitary men is almost 4 million widowers. The next-largest group is 2.5 million unmarried men followed by 1,067,000 divorced men and, finally, 283,000 married but separated men. A comparison with women who live alone reveals a clear difference: The largest group of solitary women is the 5,879,000 unmarried women. Widows come only second at 4,689,000 (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 1999).
A closer inspection of the number of persons living in private households in Germany reveals that the one-person household is the most widespread type, followed—also at an increasing rate—by two-person households. These grew from 10,863,000 in April 1991 to 12, 750,000 in May 2000 (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.15). The other major classes—three-, four-, and five-person households—reveal stagnating or slightly declining trends.
Looking at the size of multi-person households and the number of children living in them reveals, first of all, that only 9,259 ,000 (May 2000) of the total of 24, 374,000 multi-person households in 2000 contained under-18s. In the majority of cases, this was a single child (4,715,000), although followed relatively closely by two children (3,445,000). As soon as one looks for a third child in the household, numbers drop rapidly: Only 855,000 multi-person households count three under-18s among their members, and there is a further strong drop in numbers for four or more children. (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.16). We can therefore assume—although without complete statistical precision—that men living with children are faced with the problem of reconciling career and family with one child in approximately 3 million cases and with two children in roughly a further 3 million cases. This is a rough estimate, because As the Statistical Abstract does not provide any information on the gender of the adults living together in multi-person households, it is difficult to estimate how many men have to face problems with reconciling career and family.
Age Structure. An inspection of the age structure of the German population at the end of 1997 reveals a clear excess of women in the older and oldest generations (60 to over 90 years), particularly in the over-65s, that can be traced back not only to lower birth rates during the economic crisis in the early 1930s but also to the lower birth rates during World War 1 and the men who lost their lives in World War 2. However, the generations under 50 years of age show a clear excess of men. This is particularly marked in the 29- to 40-year-old age group (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a Graph 01-0308) German population is becoming continuously older. This has given rise to public debates in changing policies (see National Reports III and IV).
Family. The number of marriage ceremonies dropped slightly between 1991 and 1997; divorces increased at a slightly stronger rate (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 1999). 1998, there is an increase of marriages (1997: 417,420; 1998: 430,67): it cannot be judged at this moment if this is indicating a new trend (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.24).
Over time, people marrying for the first time have become continuously older. Men in 1985 married for the first time at the average age of 26.6 years, and women at the average age of 24.1 (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 1999/3.25), whereas in 1999 men were 31,0 and women 28,3 years of age. (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.25).
Both divorces and marriages stagnated between 1991 and 1992, which may have been due to legal and economic uncertainties arising from German unification. After 1993, the number of divorces rose again, whereas the number of marriages dropped slightly. Whereas there was one divorce for every 2.5 marriages in 1991, the ratio was one to 2.3 in 1999 (author’s calculation, based on Stat. Jahrbuch Bundesamt 2001a/3.26,3.34).
The conclusion from these figures is that male and female cohabitation in Germany cannot be regarded as being simple and free of conflict—without making any reference to other scientific hypotheses on the trend towards similar figures and progressions in other comparable countries. The presence of children does not seem to have a preventive impact on the divorce rate. Of the 190,590 divorces in 1999, 98,813 (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.35) =51,84% were childless in the years before, the number of childless marriages coming to divorce was under 50%. Thus, it can still be said that the existence of children has no impact on the stability of a marriage. Nonetheless, it continues to be evident that women initiate divorce almost twice as frequently as men. . As an example, but corresponding with a long-term data, in 1999, a bit more than in 5,9 % of all divorce cases, both partners had made the plea for divorce; in 60,1% of all cases, it was the woman, and in 34% it was the man (Stat. BundesamtJahrbuch 2001a/3.35).
Although the model of the nuclear family, including the scheme “marriage first, children later”- is still considered by the majority of pubnlic voices and by social politics etc. as the normal way of private life, it does not correspond with the statistical data. In Germany many alternative forms are practiced, like unmarried hetero- or homosexual couples with or without children, single parents with children, children living in two families as a consequence of separation of their biological parents, and so on.
In each year from 1993 to 1998, there were more than 5 million children under the age of 8 years living in Germany (with a slight decline from 5,792,000 in 1993 to 5,262,000 in 1998). In each year, approximately 45% of these children attended crèches and pre-schools. A conspicuous aspect of the German child-minding system is its relatively widespread provision of public facilities for 3- to 6-year-olds (although the majority is only in the mornings), but very scarce provisions for the under-3s. Initially, the latter improved briefly through German unification because of the comprehensive crèche facilities in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). However, by 1993 already, only 9.9% of the under-3s in Germany were attending crèches, and thjis figure dropped to 7.8% in 1994 and stabilised at 7.4% in 1998. A pre-school place was available for 71.9% of all 3- to 8-year-old children in 1993. After a slight drop in the mid-1990s, this figure rose to 78.0% in 1998. Care for the 3- to 4-year-old members of the age range from 3 to 8 years proves to be particularly problematic, because, despite improvements, facilities for looking after this sub-group had become available for only one-half by 1998. Once a child reaches the age of 4 years, the chance of finding a pre-school place was 73.3% in 1993 and 82.8% in 1998. As the child grows older, the chances improve: In 1993, 89.1% of all children over the age of 5 years attended pre-school, and this figure stabilised at 89.6% in 1998.
This data show the clash of two different cultures still existing in East and West Germany; the majority of East Germans is convinced that public care for children under three is favourable to their development, whereas the majority in the West is sceptical about this. This coincides with political traditionalism in this question in West Germany as a whole. Yet, quite frequently after the results of PISA being devastating for German pupils and the German educational system, even conservative politicians are claiming for more public childcare.
Hence, the critical phase for reconciling career and family proves to be when children are in the under-3 age group. Extending regulations on paid and unpaid leave for new parents to 3 years and the accompanying option of part-time employment during this period for up to 19 hours per week have led to a new framework for reconciling career and family and the negotiation processes between fathers and mothers. An insight into how many men took advantage of leave for new parents can be gathered from statistics on receivers of child-raising benefits from 1995-1997. In 1995, 723,477 persons received child-raising benefits, and 2.5% of them were men. In 1996 and 1997, the proportions of men were 2.4% and 2.6% respectively. If we look at another indicator, namely, the number of gainfully employed taking paid leave for new parents, the proportion of men was 1.8% in 1995, 1.4% in 1996, and 1.5% in 1997.
This makes it more than clear that, throughout the years, more than 90% of all couples who become parents in Germany select the option of a child-induced career disruption as the normal case for the mother and as a special case for the father. At the same time, the even lower proportion of men among the gainfully employed taking paid leave for new parents also reveals the lack of flexibility in the structures of the German employment system.
Work. The number of gainfully employed men in Germany dropped very slowly between 1993 and 1998, whereas the number of gainfully employed women increased just as slowly. Ffigures in may 2000 show a slight increase in men’s employment, whereas the inceasing trend in women’s employment continues (men in 2000: 22,677,000 (56%), women 17,649,000 (44%), overall 40,326,000 (100%) (Stat. Bundesamt Jahrbuch 2001a/6.2.
With German unification, a kind of a push of modernisation in gender relations seems to have occurred referring to labour market data: female labour market participation, traditionally high in the east, increasing since the late sixties – though more slowly than in comparable countries – in the west, reached 60% in 2000, referring to the dependend employees and self-employed in the residential population aged 16-64 (Bielenski & Bosch & Wagner 2001). At the same time and referring to the same definition of employment, the male employment level was 75%. These figures can be read as a - though very rough - measure of gender differences and similarities in the a labour market as one very important field of the organisation of societal gender relations. This is especially impressive if compared to the European (Euro15+Norway) average, which is 52% participation of women and 71% participation of men (European Foundation, op.cit.). Thus, the German gender difference in employment is 15%, which is considerably lower than the European average of 19%.
Sorted by age, German men and women start as equals: in the age group 16-29, 60% of both genders participate in employment. Aged 30-49, employment increases in both the gender groups, but not to the same extent: 90% of the men and 70% of the women are employed, whereas in the age group 50-64, 62% men and 44% women are employed (all figures for 2000; Bielenski & Bosch & Wagner 2001). These data being static and not dynamic, they nevertheless provide a guess about the generation effect; we may predict that men and women are heading towards a still greater extent of equality in labour market participation as such.
But there are gendered differences in working time and in the economical structure of employment. Looking at couples as a whole, in 36% of the cases, men are employed and women do not participate in the labour market. In 26% of the cases, both men and women are full-time employed, and in another 26%, men are employed full-time and women part-time (Bielenski & Bosch & Wagner 2001). Full-time employed couples are more frequent in the east. In 1995, 77% of east German women living in couples were full-time employed, with no difference referring to children in the household, compared to 65% west German women without children and 35% with children. In east Germany, the amount of female part-time is independent of children. But in both cases, east or west, the „normal“ type of working-time for men is full-time. But remarkably, 13% of the full-time employed women had a non-employed partner in 1995; this percentage has risen in 1999 up to 20% (MASKS NRW 2000). Even 11% of the women employed part-time had a non-employed partner in 1999; this figure has more then doubled since 1995 (4%). Part-time work is still very rare among men, and seems to be restricted to special structural and social conditions. In 1999, 8% of the men living alone were working part-time. There is no hint in the data about their age and qualification. Thus, this group may well integrate young men still trying to enter the labour market, or being in a phase of qualification only allowing a part-time occupation, or marginalised older men, or any others. Fagan/O’Reilly/Rubery assume 1999 that part-time among older men may be the result of restructuring of German industry, accompanied by early retirement plans etc., a development anticipated to accelerate in the future.