THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE 323
was a return to a traditional division of roles with the birth of the fi rst
child.^143
The similarities to East Germany in terms of the division of housework
are quite astonishing. As of 1985, women took care of the great majority
of housework while men helped out only now and then by taking care of
certain preferred tasks such as gardening or household repairs.^144 Due to
this division of labor within the home, many women worked only part-
time jobs or tried to fi nd work as close to home as possible, even if this
meant that their jobs were below their levels of qualifi cation. East German
women thus bore the triple burden of work, taking care of the household,
and raising children.^145 This “traditionalization” that was observed led
to a homogenization of family roles in Germany.^146 Since the late 1980s,
however, ideas about gender roles have shifted considerably. At the end
of the 1980s, a third of adults in West Germany said that women were
responsible for the household and family while men were supposed to
work to support their families. In 2012, by contrast, more than 90 per-
cent of twenty- to thirty-nine-year-old Germans stated that both parents
were responsible for raising children; 81 percent also maintained that
both partners should contribute to the family income. At the same time,
however, there were also striking diff erences between East and West.
Whereas 21 percent of those questioned in the former West Germany
favored the male-breadwinner model, only 9 percent in East Germany
preferred this model.^147 According to the European Values Study in 2008,
almost 60 percent of West Germans indicated that small children suff ered
when their mothers worked outside the home. In the old East Germany,
on the other hand, only 35 percent of those asked shared this view. The
so-called “myth of a mother’s love” (Mythos Mutterliebe)—the idea that
only mothers can build an intensive emotional relationship with their
children because of their biological disposition—is therefore still much
stronger in the West. As a result, there are still clear diff erences between
East and West Germany even today when it comes to gender roles and
the parent-child relationship. Yet these discrepancies have become less
pronounced in the last twenty to twenty-fi ve years.^148
Women as a Driving Force behind the Popularity
of Long-Term Domestic PartnershipsIn West Germany, family roles changed the most among long-time cou-
ples who never married. Several factors contributed to the increasing
popularity of such partnerships in the 1970s and 1980s, including the
fi nancial independence of partners, childlessness, low levels of religios-
ity, urban environments, and younger ages. Well-educated, employed