Gender Flexibility, But Not Equality: Young Adults' Division of Labor Preferences

Abstract

Rising acceptance of mothers’ labor force participation is often considered evidence of increased support for gender equality. This approach overlooks perceptions of appropriate behavior for men and gender dynamics within families. We use nationally representative data of 12th-grade students from Monitoring the Future surveys (1976–2014) to evaluate changes in youths’ preferred division of labor arrangements. Over this period, contemporary young people exhibited greater openness to a variety of division of labor scenarios for their future selves as parents, although the husband-as-earner/wife-as-homemaker arrangement remained most desired. Using latent class analysis, we identify six configurations of gender attitudes: conventionalists, neo-traditionalists, conventional realists, dual-earners, intensive parents, and strong intensive parents. There are no gender egalitarian configurations—exhibiting equal support for both parents’ time at work and time at home. Our findings indicate researchers must distinguish between adoption of gender egalitarian principles and gender flexibility in dividing time at work and at home.

Cause for concerns: gender inequality in experiencing the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany

“…However, our main research question is whether these psychological experiences and concerns differed by gender. Recent studies show that in the 2000s gender inequality remains in place (Dernberger and Pepin 2020) and the gender convergence in paid and unpaid work is rather slow, even during periods of economic recessionwhen men had significantly more available time due to unemployment (see e.g. Cano 2019).…”

Flexplace Work and Partnered Fathers’ Time in Housework and Childcare

“…Despite decreases in valuation of conventional, man-as-earner/woman-as-homemaker family arrangements and greater acceptance of dual-earner arrangements (Dernberger and Pepin 2020;Scarborough, Sin, and Risman 2018), families in the United States have made little progress toward achieving gender equality in the last 30 years. Recent estimates suggest that only 15% of couples share both paid and unpaid labor equally (Carlson, Sassler, and Miller 2018;Gerson 2010).…”

How do Gender Norms and Childcare Costs Affect Maternal Employment Across US States?

“…Scholars have documented the expectation that mothers "put their children's needs first, and invest much of their time, labor, emotion, intellect and money in their children" (hays 1996, 8). Even as support for women's employment has increased steadily, traditional cultural beliefs persist about mothers' primary responsibility for childrearing (Dernberger and Pepin 2020;Scarborough, Sin, and Risman 2019), leading u.S. working mothers to report substantial guilt and work-family conflict (C. Collins 2020). In the united States, cultural norms about the gendered division of household labor vary across regions and states, meaning that mothers face different normative pressures based on their place of residence (Charles, Guryan, and Pan 2018;Ruppanner and Maume 2016;Scarborough and Sin 2020).…”

“…Scholars have documented the expectation that mothers “put their children’s needs first, and invest much of their time, labor, emotion, intellect and money in their children” (Hays 1996, 8). Even as support for women’s employment has increased steadily, traditional cultural beliefs persist about mothers’ primary responsibility for childrearing (Dernberger and Pepin 2020; Scarborough, Sin, and Risman 2019), leading U.S. working mothers to report substantial guilt and work–family conflict (C. Collins 2020).…”