Giudici, Francesco

Pierrard, Antoine

Sapin, Marlène

Widmer, Eric

Serveur académique lausannois

Social Network Effects on Intentions of Work Participation by Swiss Men and Women in the Transition to ParenthoodFrancesco Giudici, Antoine Pierrard, Marlène Sapin, and Eric D. Widmer(University of Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland)Becoming parent is a key transition for the division of domesticand paid work between men and women. Overall, the division of labor becomes significantly more unequal during this transition (Widmer et al, 2003). In her seminal work, Elisabeth Bott (1957) hypothesized that  dense social networks were associated with segregated conjugal roles. From there, we hypothesize that the intentions of individuals expecting their first child  about their division oflabor for their future life as parents are related to the type of networks they are embedded in.Sample: 228 men and 233 women being in a partnership in Switzerland and expecting their first child. Mean age is 30.6 for women (SD=3.9) and 32.7 for men (SD=4.7). Higher educational levels are slightly overrepresented. Three wave survey. Results come from the first wave.Measures: Respondents were asked to report about a maximum of 15 alters considered important during the current year (kind of relationship with ego, sex, occupation, status, age, etc.). Sociometric questions concerning emotional and practical support were asked about the first six alters cited. Dependent variable: Occupational intentions related to the period after the maternity leave. (41% of women intend to work at 60% or less; 60% of men intend to work 90% and more).Independent variables: Density of networks for emotional support (men: mean = .33, SD = .25; women: mean = .27, SD = .22) and practical support (men: mean = .34, SD = .28; women: mean = .28, SD = .23), overlap with the partner's network (men: mean =.17 , SD = .18, women: mean = .19, SD = .20), composition of the network (see clusters, Table 2 ).Control for educational level, occupational situation (working full time or part-time), and opinion of best options for the division of labor.Table 1 presents a logistic regression on occupational intentions showing an effect of density of emotional support for women and density of practical support for men.Contact: Francesco.Giudici@unil.chSUNBELT XXIX, San Diego (CA), March 10-15, 2009Cluster analysis based on the status of alters revealed three types of networks composition (Table 2).Multiplex networks are characterized by the presence of relatives, friends and co-workers (106 women, 111 men). Friendship networks are characterized by the presence of friends (90 women, 64 men).Kinship networks are characterized by the presence of both relatives by blood and in-laws (37 women, 53 men).Table 3 revealed that emotional support density dependson network types and overalp.  **p<.01, *p<.05Results show that: 1) Higher density of emotional support is associated with lower intentions of work participation for women  (Table 1). 2) Higher density of practical support is associated with higher intentions of work participation for men (Table 1). 3) Density depends on network composition. Networks based on kinship are more dense than friendship and multiplex networks (Table 3). 4) Density depends on overlap of network members between partners. More overlapping networks have a higher density of emotional and practical support (Table 3).Conclusion: Social networks matter for gender inequalities created by the transition to parenthood. The division of paid and domestic work is not a privatized issue in the hand of partners only but relates to network composition, overalp between partners' networks and network density.Table 1. Logistic Regression on occupational intentions; for women to work 60% and less; for men to work 90% or more.Table 2. Types of nework composition.Table 3. Linear regression on emotional support density.References:Bott, E. (1957). Family and Social Network. Londres, Tavistock. Widmer E., et al. (2003). Couples contemporains: Cohésion, régulation et conflits. Une enquête sociologique. Zürich, Seismo Women   Men  Educational level   Educational level  Low - Low - Medium 1.14 Medium 2.24 High .33* High .79 Household Income ª   Household Income ª  Less than 8K  - Less than 8K  - 8K to10K .84 8K to10K .27* 10K and more 1.53 10K and more .79 Size of network 1.02  Size of network .76 Emotional support density  5.21*  Practical support density  3.58* Same % of work at the present  6.03**  Same % of work at the present  21.07** Opinion: for an equal  division of labor 1.01  Opinion: for an equal  division of labor .28* ChiSquare 34.65**  ChiSquare 61.19** DF 8  DF 8   I II III  W M W M W M Educ. Level       Low - - - - - - Medium -.05 -.02 -.01 -.01 -.03 -.00 High -.12 -.07 -.07 -.03 -.09 -.04 Household Income ª       Less than 8K  - - - - - - 8K to10K .06 -.18* .04 -.18* .03 -.17* 10K and more -.07 -.12 -.09 -.13 -.08 -.12 Clusters       Kinship - - - -   Multiplex -.18 -.06 -.10 .04   Friendship -.28** -.22** -.16 -.13   Overlap w. partner   .29** .26**   Interaction terms       Kinship high Overlap     - - Kinship small Overlap     -.16* .06 Multiplex high Overlap     -.23* .06 Multiplex small Overlap     -.27** -.08 Friendship high Overlap     -.15 .01 Friendship small Overlap     -.43* -.28** R Squared .06 .06 .14 .12 .11 .12 Terms Multiplex Friendship Kinship F-test % 47.07% 33.41% 19.52%  Partner 0.88 0.86 0.91 0.61 Mother 0.90 0.42 1.00 102.98** Female Friend 1.49 1.42 0.87 5.37** Father 0.80 0.04 0.92 324.90** Male Friend 1.52 0.92 1.12 8.25** Partner’s Mother 0.21 0.25 0.93 114.72** Sister 0.45 0.37 0.38 0.94 Brother 0.55 0.09 0.53 32.05** Partner’s Father 0.09 0.12 0.84 195.87** Superior 0.25 0.17 0.20 1.65 Female Coworker 0.44 0.09 0.03 25.83** Male Coworker 0.36 0.14 0.16 6.62** Others terms 1.48 1.50 2.36 9.71** Mean Size 9.43 6.39 10.26 63.08**  

Social Network Effects on Intentions of Work Participation by Swiss Men and Women in the Transition to Parenthood

https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_B338631FF4D7.P001/REF.pdf

Social Network Effects on Intentions of Work Participation by Swiss Men and Women in the Transition to Parenthood

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Serveur académique lausannois