University of Bayreuth, Press Releases No. 121/2024 - 29 October 2024
The Ignored Group: War Widows between Career and Family
Bayreuth economic historian Prof. Dr. Sebastian Braun has recently published a paper and is leading a project titled “War Widows: Employment Biographies in West Germany and Europe after 1945,” in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Jan Stuhler from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. This internationally oriented research also highlights potential problems that may arise in Ukraine currently.
What for?
The main goal of the project is to compare the career trajectories of war widows in Germany with those in other European countries. The comparison aims to provide further insights into which specific state measures have impacted their employment biographies. Additionally, the project will focus on the effects of widowhood on the employment of subsequent generations and the impact of the "male shortage" resulting from the war on women's employment. The researchers advocate for stronger support for war widows during and immediately after wars, which they consider crucial for breaking the cycle of conflict-induced poverty..
After World War II, war widows shouldered the dual burden of work and child-rearing, but they often ended their employment as soon as their children reached adulthood. This is revealed in a new empirical study by Braun and Stuhler, now published in the prestigious Journal of Public Economics. "Our findings emphasize the importance of political frameworks for the employment careers of war widows, making them relevant for current conflicts," says Braun, an economic historian and labor economist at the University of Bayreuth. In the project "War Widows: Employment Biographies in West Germany and Europe after 1945," Stuhler and Braun intend to continue researching this topic.
The study uses life-course data from West Germany to shed light on the economic situation of war widows, a group often overlooked in historical accounts of World War II and other conflicts. "Although millions of women worldwide have lost their partners in wars, surprisingly little is known about these women's employment biographies," says Braun. After World War II, most of the up to 1.2 million war widows in West Germany remained unmarried. As late as 1971, war widows born between 1906 and 1914 were 73% less likely to be married than comparable women who had not lost their husbands in the war. Despite the negative impact this had on household income, war widows were initially more likely to be employed than non-widows. In 1950, more than a third of war widows were self-employed or in paid employment. Their employment rate was thus 13.8 percentage points higher than that of non-widows, of whom ‘only’ 20.5%, or about one in five women, were in paid employment. However, this positive employment effect gradually decreased, and by 1971 the likelihood of war widows being employed was lower than that of their peers. The overall employment rate (including family helpers) was at the time 5 percentage points lower among war widows compared to the comparison group.
Stigmatization of "Working Moms"
This result is surprising, especially as unmarried women – those who were not widowed - were generally more likely to be employed than married women. The new study suggests that the long-term negative employment effect is due to the stigmatization of employment for single mothers, insufficient childcare facilities, and increasingly generous state support. As support benefits decreased with rising employment income, there were negative incentives to take up employment. These negative incentives became more significant as war widows aged, especially as the income-dependent component of support payments became more generous during the 1950s and 1960s.
The lack of adequate support for war widows in the immediate post-war period is not unique to post-war West Germany, as state financial resources are typically limited after conflicts. The researchers emphasize in their study that international efforts to support war widows during and immediately after conflicts are particularly important when many widows bear the double burden of caring for young children and working. Such support is also crucial for breaking the cycle of conflict-induced poverty. "The difficult financial situation after 1945 likely explains why the children of war widows often had to leave school early," says Braun. “However, as financial leeway increases, it becomes increasingly important to design compensation programs for widows in a way that preserves work incentives.”
Original Publication: Braun, Sebastian T. und Jan Stuhler (2024). The Economic Consequences of Being Widowed by War: A Life-Cycle Perspective. Journal of Public Economics, 239: 105241.

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Till BraunChair Economics VII: Empirical Economic History
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-6256
E-mail: sebastian.braun@uni-bayreuth.de

Anja-Maria MeisterPR Spokesperson at the University of Bayreuth
Phone: +49 (0) 921 / 55-5300
E-mail: anja.meister@uni-bayreuth.de