Centre for Policy on Ageing



Retrenchment, reproduction, modernization: pension politics and the decline of the German breadwinner model
Author(s)	Traute Meyer
Journal title	Journal of European Social Policy, vol 8, no 3, August 1998
Pages	pp 195-211
Keywords	Pensions ; Social policy ; Sexual equality ; Germany.
Annotation	The German welfare state in gendered welfare state analyses is widely recognised as a strong male breadwinner model: its institutions support the traditional divisions of labour and low female labour force participation. This paper aims to show that due to diminishing political support this model is eroding. Focusing on two major pension reforms, one in 1989 and one in 1997, the positions of the political actors involved are analysed. According to their public statements these actors were motivated by three factors: they agreed that retrenchment measures were necessary; the intention to secure generational reproduction by improving carers' independent rights was dominant; and reforms were motivated by the intentions to make the pension system more just. The author concludes that the direction of the reforms is to reduce the economic attractiveness of marriage and to create stronger incentives to be employed. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-980916401 A
Classmark	JJ: TM2: TM8: 767
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