PhD thesis defence by Max Behrendt
This dissertation investigates why many women and men in different-sex couples—despite professed commitments to equality—continue to maintain traditional divisions of paid and unpaid work. Drawing on narrative couple interviews with 23 multi-child families across four urban regions in Germany and integrating insights from family sociology, psychology, and criminology, I develop a theoretical framework that foregrounds individual-level cognitive processes as a lens for understanding family organization. The focus is on how parents reflect on, reinterpret, and potentially transform existing family scripts—whether inherited from their upbringing or shaped by their own parenting experiences. These processes are conceptualized as gradual, biographically shaped developments unfolding over time and across multiple stages, influenced by emotional responses and contextual factors that can facilitate behavioral change. While prior approaches—ranging from economic theories of the family to multilevel gender perspectives—acknowledge the role of individual reflection, this study emphasizes how such cognitive shifts can operate systematically to reshape family practices. The analysis identifies three central mechanisms—cognitive transformation, same-sex parental identification, and stable dispositions—that are reflected in narratives of endorsement or change, shaping how individuals perceive which family scripts are suitable for their own household organization. These mechanisms unfold along distinct pathways—active egalitarian, traditional, and passive egalitarian—highlighting the subjective meaning-making processes through which participants interpret and make sense of the evolution, modification, and persistence of divisions of paid and unpaid labor. The findings highlight that, alongside structural and cultural influences, individual-level cognitive processes can be crucial for understanding families’ selection of particular scripts, contributing to a deeper understanding of the dynamics underlying the stalled gender revolution.
Max Johannes Behrendt is a PhD researcher at the European University Institute (EUI) and a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School of Governance. His research explores the drivers, dynamics, and barriers of transformation across institutions, including public administration, family structures, and education systems. In his PhD, he examines why different-sex couples often maintain traditional divisions of labor despite commitments to equality, drawing on insights from sociology, psychology, and criminology. He has previously worked at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, in policy consulting, and in the education NGO sector. He holds degrees from the European University Institute, Hertie School, and Humboldt University of Berlin.