This book investigates how educational expansion, the trend towards the

service society and the German unification affect East and West German

women's life courses and family lives. It focuses on educational enrolment,

educational attainment level, labour force participation, career resources,

social origin, the educational match among partners as well as historical

periods and examines their consequences on women's entry into first motherhood

as well as partnership formation and dissolution processes. Using

longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS),multivariate

methods such as event history analysis were applied. The findings

suggest that women's entry into motherhood during full-time education

is highly dependent on women's age, social origin and the policy measures

in a country.