Motherhood, Employment, and the Dynamics of Women’s Gender Attitudes

Abstract

This article presents an investigation of the dynamics of women's gender attitudes from the perspective of women's conflicting employment and childrearing responsibilities. It examines the independent and joint effects of motherhood and employment on gender attitudes using combined data from the British Household Panel Survey and the Understanding Society panel study. The results of fixed effects models show no evidence supporting a direct influence of either motherhood or employment on women's attitudes toward a traditional division of labor. However, changes in attitudes are observed when motherhood and employment statuses are considered jointly. Specifically, women are less traditional after the transition to motherhood than before only if motherhood is combined with full-time employment. By contrast, women are more traditional after the transition to motherhood than before only if motherhood coincides with their withdrawal from the labor force. These associations remain robust after considering feedback from earlier attitudes. All the findings suggest that the emergence and realization of incompatibility between women's employment and childrearing responsibilities reshape women's gender attitudes during the transition to motherhood.

Marriage Penalty: Unconditional Quantile Regression of Housework Participation in Japan

“…For example, South and Spitze (1994) found that among both women and men, marriage was associated with more housework time. Marriage is also associated with more traditional gender attitudes (Zhou, 2017). On the other hand, Baxter, Hewitt, and Haynes (2008) found that the effects are applicable to women but not to men.…”

Marriage and Housework: Analyzing the Effects of Education Using the 2011 and 2016 Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities

“…Moreover, life-course transitions such as the transition from being single to being married are expected to influence the association between education and participation in housework. The research in the western countries shows that women increase their housework participation regardless of their educational level when they marry and have children (Baxter et al, 2008;Gupta, 1999;Zhou, 2017). In Japan, we expect similar effects on each transition (marriage and parenthood):…”

“…On the other hand, the life-course perspective emphasizes that the effects of economic resources on housework participation might vary depending on the life-course stage (Baxter, Hewitt, & Haynes, 2008;Coltrane & Ishii-kuntz, 1992;He & Zhou, 2018;Kan & Gershuny, 2010;Nitsche & Grunow, 2016;Zhou, 2016Zhou, , 2017Zhou, Wu, & He, 2017). However, many assumptions in the life-course analysis of housework participation, especially those derived from the processes of gender socialization and the effects of life transitions, remain unquestioned and continue to be applied directly to the cultural contexts other than in the global north.…”

The Empowerment of Labour Women Picking Coffee Through the Education of Functional Literacy Based on Local Potentials

“…The ability to recieve a variety of information and knowledge is obtained from a program of functional literacy that is done consciously and can be planned. It also implicitly implies that the significance of a woman's identity as a worker is undermined when women hold the primary responsibility for child care (Zhou, 2017).…”