Despite increasingly gender-conscious family policies in Germany, the division of labour practised in families is changing only gradually. This dissertation uses an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach to examine this slow process of change in the division of labour in families in the form of three academic articles. It draws on the framework of "gender as a social structure" (Risman, 2004; Risman & Davis, 2013) to look at changes in gender consciousness and division of labour arrangements at the couple level as well as from a family policy perspective. On the one hand, the role of couple communication in negotiations about the division of housework and childcare after the birth of the first child is considered. Second, it examines how the interplay of informal and formal childcare in families contributes to mothers' labour force participation when children are young. Finally, a survey experiment is used to examine the situational and family contextual factors on which normative attitudes towards gender-specific divisions of labour and childcare arrangements in the population depend. The dissertation is based on longitudinal methods and experimental data based on the German Relationship and Family Panel (pairfam).