Konietzka D., Kreyenfeld M.- Women's Employment and Non-Marital Childbearing: A Comparison between East and West Germany in the 1990s In contrast to West Germany, where marriage and childbirth have been strongly coupled, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) displayed high rates of non-marital childbearing. Researchers attributed this pattern to "misguided" GDR family policies that encouraged women to remain unmarried after childbirth. With German unification, East Germany's legal and political institutions — including family policies — were replaced by those of West Germany. Against this background, it was widely expected that east German non-marital birth rates would soon fall to west German levels. After unification, however, they increased even further. This article argues that the enormous east-west differences in non-marital childbearing in the 1990s can be attributed to differences in women's work orientation. Despite unfavourable labour market constraints and social policies that encourage women's withdrawal from the labour force after childbirth, east German women, compared with their west German counterparts, are still more likely to be in full-time employment, and to re-enter the labour force sooner after childbirth. Our empirical investigation, drawing on data from the German 1997 micro-census, reveals a strong effect of women's education and employment on marriage in west Germany, whereas in east Germany the probability of living in a marital union is hardly correlated at all with women's employment characteristics. We conclude that a generally strong female work orientation and the wide availability of public day care facilities are the most important factors weakening the economic incentives for east German women to get married at childbirth., German unification in 1990 provided the conditions for a "laboratory experiment" seldom possible in the social sciences. Two societies living under very different, indeed opposing, social rules, found themselves, almost overnight, placed under a single regime, that of the West. How was behaviour going to adapt? Many will remember, for example, that the prospect of relinquishing East Germany's more liberal abortion laws provoked serious discontent in GDR, to the point of actually delaying the final agreement on reunification. In this article Dirk Konietzka and Michaela Kreyenfeld focus on non-marital births. In 1989, the proportions in east and west were 34% and 10% respectively. Would the new unified context for the economy and for family policy cause these two rates to converge? In the event, the opposite happened — the difference between them increased still further (50% in the east and 18% in the west in 1999). The authors explore the reasons for this pattern of change, and single out the sharp — and persistent — contrast in attitudes between women in the two regions as regards their attachment to the labour market and how it can be reconciled with family life., Konietzka D., Kreyenfeld M.- Trabajo femenino y fecundidad fuera del matrimonio en Alemania durante los aňos noventa: un estudio comparativo del Este y el Oeste Antes de la reunificación, matrimonio y procreación estaban estrechamente ligadas en Alemania Occidental (RFA). En Alemania del Este (RDA), una proporción elevada de nacimien- tos tenia lugar fuera del matrimonio. Este fenómeno se ha atribuido a los "efectos perversos" de las políticas familiares de la RDA, que incentivaban a las madrés solteras a no casarse. Después de la reunificación, las instituciones políticas y jurídicas de la RDA -incluidas las políticas familiares - fueron remplazadas por las de la RFA. En consecuencia, se esperaba que el numero de nacimientos fuera del matrimonio disminuyera rápidamente en Alemania del Este hasta al- canzar el nivel existente en Alemania Occidental; pero contrariamente a lo esperado, el numero aumentó. Según los autores de este artículo, la distinta actitud de las mujeres frente al trabajo ex- plica la diferencia observada entre Oriente y Occidente durante los aňos noventa. A pesar de las condiciones desfavorables del mercado de trabajo y de una politica social que incentiva a las mujeres a abandonar el empleo al tener un hijo, las alemanas del Este son más proclives que sus compatriotas de Occidente a trabajar a tiempo complete, y vuelven al trabajo más rápidamente después de un nacimiento. Esta investigación, que explota los datas del micro-censo de 1997, révéla la fuerte influencia del nivel educativo y del trabajo de las mujeres sobre el matrimonio en Alemania Occidental. En Alemania del Este, la correlación entre la probabilidad de estar casada y la actividad profesionál es escasa. Los autores concluyen que la fuerte propension general a trabajar y la abundancia de servicios públicos de guarderia reducen la influencia de las incitaciones económicas al matrimonio entre las jóvenes madrés de Alemania del Este., Konietzka D., Kreyenfeld M. Women's Employment and Non-Marital Childbearing: A Comparison between East and West Germany in the 1990s. In: Population (English edition), 57ᵉ année, n°2, 2002. pp. 331-357.