300551 Gender and the labor market (MA: Sozialstruktur und soziale Ungleichheit) (S) (SoSe 2025)

The General Act on Equal Treatment (AGG) protects, among other things, against discrimination on the basis of gender in working life. Despite this legal protection and decades of convergence, the labour market continues to be characterized by gender differences in employment participation, scope of employment and pay. The aim of the seminar is to shed light on the significance of gender for labor market integration. The seminar is divided into three thematic sections:
(1) First, we will take stock of the situation on the labor market: what gender differences exist in the labor market? How have these changed over time? What are the differences between countries?
(2) Various explanations for the observed gender differences are then developed and discussed. In addition to sociological explanations, explanations from economics will also be explored.
(3) In the last section of the seminar, current political demands and instruments that have already been implemented (e.g. pay transparency law, “women's quota”) are examined and discussed against the background of the findings developed in sections (1) and (2).