While there were changes in gender relations in western Germany during the second half of the twentieth century that are widely perceived as a shift in power, a comprehensive and systematic approach to power dynamics in gender relations still lay beyond the reach of most of sociology and gender studies at that time. However, an adequate framework to theorise about and conceptualise power processes can be found in Norbert Elias' thinking and, particularly, his concepts of ‘power balance’, ‘power resources’ and ‘social process’. Operationalisation of power resources is then done through the ‘classical triad’ of social-structural analysis, that is, education, labour and income, with the Eliasian concept of ‘habitus’ as an added power resource. Shifts in the power balance of genders are traced mainly in the form of both changes in structural positions, less so of interaction patterns. The changes mostly took place across the spheres of education and paid labour but also within the (extended) family sphere, which was the crucial arena of gender power dynamics during the immediate post-war period. Finally, a model of social processes is presented to integrate and explain empirical findings. It connects the observable power shifts to a wider ‘bundle’ of social processes and identifies some structures and interrelations of these processes. The process model is provided as an explanation of most of the power balance shifts as well as their scope and limitations.