Gender-asymmetric time allocation and divorce. A US-West Germany comparison

There was a time when the prevailing opinion about family relations was that couple specialization (men working for pay, women staying at home) was optimal for both welfare maximization and partnership stabil- ity (Becker, 1981). One would accordingly predict rising divorce rates as women move into paid employment and pursue lifelong careers. The link between women’s new roles and divorce has fueled a large number of em- pirical studies, but as Özcan and Breen’s (2012) overview concludes, the causal link is far from clear. There is, however, evidence that the conven- tional male breadwinner model is losing its stabilizing influence on part- nerships (Pampel, 2011). And studies implementing a dyadic approach suggest that partner similarity in terms of attitudes, preferences, and be- havior increases relationship satisfaction. This, in turn, should positively influence partnership stability (Hohmann-Marriott, 2006). In this article we focus on two countries, western Germany and the US, from the mid-1980s to the end of the 2000s. Over this period the crude di- vorce rate in western Germany increased from 2.1% to 2.3% while in the US it decreased from 5% to 3.7% (United Nations, various years).