In the course of changing forms of work and life, care services, such as caring for the elderly, looking after small children or providing personal assistance in difficult life situations, are increasingly being outsourced, but also redistributed between men and women. The caring daughter or daughter-in-law is being replaced by the old people's home or the mobile care service; small children are no longer looked after exclusively by mothers, but also in crèches and increasingly by fathers.

How these changes affect social inequalities is being investigated in several sub-research projects that are interconnected in terms of content and methodology. The following research questions are being investigated: Why is the remuneration of social service work still low despite a high demand for nursing and care workers? How can reconciliation between family and work succeed for men and women? What obstacles need to be overcome so that outsourcing of care and nursing tasks reduces gender inequalities and does not shift them from one population group to another?

The research professorship "Work, Family and Social Inequality" is headed by Lena Hipp.