A Socio-Structural Perspective on Family Model Preferences, Gender Roles and Work–Family Attitudes in Spain

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the diversity of work–family arrangement models has increased in Spain. It is difficult to understand this phenomenon without attending to the Spanish population’s preferences for such models. This article analyses the attitudes towards gender roles, and family model preferences within a normative and socio-structural framework. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme 2012, we developed descriptive and explanatory analyses. The findings reveal contradictions between attitudes towards the mother’s and father’s work intensity and gender roles that seem to be resolved through preferences for a “hybrid” or “adaptive” family model. We also identified the determinants of family model preferences for both men and women. The results show that gender plays a significant role in explaining preferences (women are less likely than men to prefer the male-breadwinner family model) and that socio-structural factors such as age, education level, immigrant condition, religious status and social class influence the preferences of men and women differently. Ultimately, these results contrast with Hakim’s Preference Theory, which emphasises individuals’ choices over socio-structural factors as determinants of family models, and align with Crompton’s and Pfau-Effinger’s theories.

Cognitive Dissonance and Fertility Rates: A Comparative Analysis of Attitudes toward the Gender Division of Labour in East Asian and Western Industrial Societies

“…As modern contraception has allowed women greater control over reproduction at the same time that employment opportunities have expanded, those who prefer careers to family-centred activities are increasingly able to exercise their innate tendencies. However, Moreno-Mínguez et al (2018) found that, rather than innate tendencies, gender roles in family life are influenced by significant external socio-structural factors such as age and education. Pfau-Effinger's (2004, 2012 theory of a gender culture also suggests that innate preferences may be less influential on the division of labour in family life than social values concerning employment of family members and parental roles in child care.…”

A Change in Work-Family/Life or a Return to Traditional Normative Patterns in Spain? Systematic Review

“…That is, the advances in the public sphere reflected in indicators on women's jobs and education are not matched by advances in family work, where inequality is manifest. The interpretive paradigms of work-family reconciliation have found it difficult to incorporate the distinctive characteristics of the Mediterranean family model of reconciliation when interpreting this ambivalence (Moreno-Mínguez et al, 2019 ). We see proof of this difficulty in studies conducted during the pandemic on liberal countries such as the United Kingdom, which stress that they find no evidence of retraditionalization of gender roles (Galasso and Foucault, 2020 ; Hupkau and Petrongolo, 2020 ).…”

“…All of the foregoing is reflected in cultural ambivalences that make egalitarian advances more difficult in work-family reconciliation practices (González and Jurado Guerrero, 2015 ). The pandemic has strengthened and exposed the attitudinal ambivalence that existed previously in symbolic representations of the family in Spain (Moreno-Mínguez et al, 2019 ; Seiz et al, 2019 ).…”

El uso de servicios formales de cuidado infantil entre 0 y 3 años en España

“…Durante las últimas décadas, la diversidad de modelos de familia ha aumentado en la sociedad española, en paralelo a un aumento significativo del empleo femenino y a la transformación del modelo tradicional del sostén familiar masculino (Moreno-Mínguez, Ortega-Gaspar, & Gamero-Burón, 2019). El desafío de conciliación de vida laboral y familiar que plantea el empleo de los dos miembros de la pareja se ha resuelto mediante distintas estrategias que, fundamentalmente, han descansado en la solidaridad familiar (Tobío et al, 2010;Meil y Rogero-García, 2014), en el recurso a servicios formales de cuidado infantil (en adelante, SFCI) y, aunque en menor medida, en la contratación de cuidadores privados en el hogar y en otras fórmulas de cuidado más minoritarias como las "madres de día" o cuidadoras/es contratadas/os que trabajan fuera del hogar.…”