Multidimensionality of Gender Ideology and Relationships With Gendered Practices: An Exploratory Analysis Across Europe in 2002 and 2012

Many researchers assume a one-dimensionality of gender ideology constructs and/or stability of dimensions across countries and time, yet these assumptions have rarely been tested. WE apply factor analyses on two waves of the International Social Survey Programme in 2002 and 2012, and comparable European countries to test this. Our results show that gender ideologies can be distinguished into distinctive domains that relate to mother’s employment, women’s work, men’s role in the family, and finally women’s breadwinning. These dimensions have be found to be relatively stable across countries and time. Results from regression models investigating different aspects of the gender division of labour suggest that distinguishing dimensions is less important when considering gender ideologies at the individual level but can make a big difference when examining gender culture at the country level

From partners to parents: The gender division of domestic work, parenthood, and relationship quality of British couples.

This thesis explores changes in the division of paid and domestic work when British couples become parents. It investigates whether the increase in gender inequality that often occurs may be an obstacle to childbearing and relationship quality. Previous research concentrated on mothers' labour market interruptions and connections between female employment and low fertility or high family instability. Considering the division of domestic labour, however, is central to understanding how economic inequalities between men and women are interdependent with women's greater involvement in unpaid work. This thesis also provides the first UK evidence on how domestic work matters to childbearing and relationship quality of new parents in the context of trends towards more egalitarian gender role identities but lagging practice. The theoretical framework combines a rational choice approach to family behaviour with explanations based on gender role identity. The empirical investigation uses event-history analysis and regression models based on fourteen waves (1992-2005) of the British Household Panel Survey. In contrast to neo-classical economic predictions, the change in the division of labour after couples become parents does not depend on women's relative earnings. Instead both partners' gender role identities are more significant. The association between the domestic labour division and childbearing or relationship quality, however, does not vary by women's gender role identities. Men's housework contributions are associated with a higher probability of having a second child for dual-earner couples, although traditional male-breadwinner families are still more likely to have a first and second child. Gender equality in housework and childcare after couples have a child is associated with lower satisfaction with the partner for most mothers but greater relationship stability. Despite emergence of some egalitarian trends, relatively traditional practice and expectations therefore seem to persist among new parents. The gendered UK policy context also favours more traditional arrangements around parenthood

Gender typicality of occupational aspirations among immigrant and native youth: the role of gender ideology, educational aspirations, and work values

The gender typicality of adolescents' occupational aspirations helps sustain occupational segregation, ultimately contributing to maintain gender stratification. According to sociological and psychological perspectives, adolescents develop occupational aspirations by drawing on their gender beliefs and work-related values. Yet few empirical studies have examined the contribution of these value orientations specifically to the gender typicality of occupational aspirations. Moreover, although children from immigrant backgrounds make up an ever-increasing share of school-age students, there is scant evidence on the gender typicality of their occupational aspirations relative to those of their majority peers. This study investigates variations in the gender typicality of occupational aspirations among adolescents from immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds at around age 16. It also explores how the gender typicality of different groups' aspired occupations relates to differences in gender ideologies, in educational aspirations, and in the importance attributed to three work values: the possibility to earn high income, to help others, and to think and solve problems. Drawing on a harmonized survey from England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, the analysis uses a sample of 8,574 adolescents, including 1,510 girls and 1,336 boys from immigrant backgrounds. Multinomial logistic regressions estimated the associations with aspired occupations, classified as masculine, integrated, feminine or ultrafeminine based on the proportion of women working in them. Results indicate that boys and girls of immigrant origin aspired to somewhat less gender-typical occupations than their majority peers. Among girls, these differences would be even larger if they were not suppressed by the more traditional gender ideologies held by girls from immigrant backgrounds. In terms of mediating mechanisms, our findings suggest that more ambitious educational aspirations may partly explain these differences. These findings indicate that distinguishing between multiple dimensions of adolescents' work-related values hint at different underlying mechanisms in the formation of adolescents' occupational aspirations