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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
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partner, do not have any direct significant influence at all, despite the fact that 
these variables play a crucial role in most sociological and economic theories of 
labour market behaviour. To the extent that these factors do matter, their 
influence is fully mediated by the work preference of the mother.  
Furthermore, the data indicates that 54.9 per cent of the mothers work exactly 
the number of hours they prefer, 22.3 per cent want to work more hours (on 
average 10.6 hours) and 22.8 per cent desire less hours at work (on average 6.6 
hours). Previous Dutch research already revealed (Van Wel and Knijn, 2006) that 
most Dutch women (60%) do not want to work more or fewer hours per week 
than they actually do; one in five would like to work fewer hours per week, and 
one in five would like to work more. In particular, women with a lower education 
would like to work more (Van Wel and Knijn, 2006, p.646).
 
 By comparison, only 
roughly one third of American women succeed in working their preferred number 
of hours (Jacob, 2008; Fagan, 2001; Reynolds, 2003). Therefore, the results seem 
to confirm the expectation that, compared to other affluent societies, Dutch 
mothers have more opportunities to work their preferred number of hours 
(Hakim, 2003c; Plantenga, 2002).  
Number of hours worked  
Next, the study examines which variables affect the number of hours a mother 
works if she has paid work (table 6). The Squared Multiple Correlation of the 
regression analysis of work hours is 0.69. As expected, older mothers work fewer 
hours than younger mothers, but the positive sign of age squared shows that the 
number of hours increases again beyond the age of 44. Consistent with previous 
research, we see that higher educated mothers work more hours than lower 
educated mothers. As expected, mothers who consider themselves to be religious 
work fewer hours. In line with microeconomic theory, the income of her partner 
exerts a negative influence on the hours a mother works. Unexpectedly, the 
presence of a partner and the number and the age of her children do not affect the 
actual hours in paid work. 
Of most interest for the study is the significant effect of a mother’s preferred 
number of work hours on her actual number of work hours (beta .790). In line 
with the hypothesis, within this path analysis there is not a significant effect 
running from actual work hours to preferred work hours. Moreover, it is 
noteworthy that the standardised coefficient of the preferred work hours is much 
larger than the standardised coefficients of the background characteristics,
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which means that the influence of work preference outweighs the other 
influences. The results, therefore, confirm the first hypothesis. 
                                                           
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 The standardised coefficients of age and age squared are comparable with work preference, but 
because they have opposite signs they largely cancel each other out. 

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Chapter 4 - The vital and stabilising role of work preferences 
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Hypothesis 2:  
A mother’s preferred number of work hours is primarily influenced by her 
general gender values and her personal gender and work attitudes. 
Which variables explain the number of hours a mother prefers to work? A 
number of background characteristics contribute to explaining their preferred 
number of work hours (table 7). 
As expected, the older a mother is, the more hours she wishes to work, 
although, as shown above, she actually works fewer hours. Apparently, her older 
age makes it more difficult to put her preference into practise. Next, the more 
children a mother has, the fewer hours she prefers to work. The age of her 
children has no additional effect. Higher educated mother prefer to work more 
hours than lower educated mothers. Religiousness has no effect on her preferred 
number of work hours, whereas it has on her actual number of work hours. 
Neither the presence nor the income of her partner has an effect on a mother’s 
preferred hours, although her partner’s income does, as we have seen, 
significantly reduce her actual work hours.  
Secondly, included in the path model are the attitudinal factors, which can be 
used in order to explain the number of preferred work hours. If attitudinal factors 
are included in the analysis, they seem more important than the impact of these 
demographic situational factors, which confirms the second hypothesis (table 7).  
The more egalitarian a mother’s general gender values, the more hours she 
prefers to work (beta .130). As expected, the personal ideal family life has a 
stronger impact on the preferred number of hours than more general moral views 
on the gender division of labour (beta .235). In addition, personal work attitudes 
matter as well. Nevertheless, only two work-life attitudes out of the eleven 
options affect a mother’s preferred number of work hours significantly. A mother 
who chooses “I like to work” and “I work in order to be economically 
independent of others” prefers to work 2 to 3 hours more per week (beta .101 and 
.117, respectively) compared to a mother who does not endorse these 
propositions.
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Hypothesis 3:  
A mother’s preferred number of work hours, her general gender values and 
her personal gender and work attitudes are influenced by parental 
characteristics during childhood. 
In order to examine the third hypothesis, the path model needed to be extended to 
include four attitudinal variables that appeared to have a significant relationship 
with preferred number of work hours. These four attitudinal factors are: general 
                                                           
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 The other possibilities remained insignificant if “I like to work” and “I work in order to be 
economically independent of others” were removed from the analysis. 
 

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