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Chapter 5 - The social origins of Dutch mothers’ gender values and ideal family life 
147 
Table 15. Standardized total effects of structural path analysis of Ideal Family Life 
(belonging to table 14) 
 
Egalitarian  Ideal family life 
1. 
General Gender values 
.400 
2. 
Education .218 
3. 
Partner present 
-.369 
4. 
Age 1.038 
5. 
Age squared 
-1.006 
6. 
Religiousness -.065 
Source: Amos analysis of merged data from questionnaires: ‘Politics and Values’, ‘Work and 
Schooling’, ‘Women and their social environment’, Liss Panel, Centerdata, University of Tilburg, 
November 2010. 
Hypothesis 2:  
A mother’s gender values and ideal family life are influenced by parental 
socialization during childhood.  
In the second path model, the parental norms and values are included, along with 
the educational level of the respondent’s parents as control variables. Firstly, the 
respondent’s own educational level, her age and her religiousness are related to 
her general gender values. Higher-educated mothers have more egalitarian 
general gender values. Secondly, several parental values – although certainly not 
all – correspond with a mother’s general gender values and her ideal family life.  
 
 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
148 
Table 16. Model 2: Structural path analysis of dependent variables Ideal family life 
and General gender values  
 
Egalitarian Ideal family 
life 
Egalitarian General gender 
values 
 
Beta 
B (s.e.) 
Beta 
B (s.e.) 
1. 
General gender values 
.400 
2.114*** 
(.159) 
-  
2. 
Education .107 
.056*** 
 
(.016) 
.259 .026*** 
(.003) 
3. 
Age .626 
.051* 
(.022) 
1.012 .016*** 
(.005) 
4. 
Age2 -.592 
-.055* 
(.025) 
-.950 -.017** 
(.005) 
5. 
Partner present 
-.307 
-.236***  
(.043) 
n.s.  
6. 
Religiousness n.s. 
 
-.163 
-.022*** 
(.004) 
7. 
Education parents: mother 
n.s. 
 
.074 
.010* 
(.005) 
8. 
Message parents: work is a mean 
to earn money 
n.s.  -.161 
-.025** 
(.008) 
9. 
Message parents: caring for others 
is important 
-.127 -.090* 
(.037) 
n.s.  
10.  Work oriented mother 
.155 .110** 
(.038) 
.150 0.20** 
(.008) 
Intercept  
.174 
(.461) 
 -.095 
(.105) 
Squared Multiple corr. (R2) .303 
 
.135 
 
Degrees of freedom 
10 
 
 
 
Bollen-stine bootstrap 
p =.001 
 
 
 
1. 
As independent and dependent variable general gender values, including control variables and 
primary socialization factors as independent variables.  
2. 
Beta: standardized regression coefficient.  
3. 
B: unstandardized regression coefficient. 
4. 
S.E.: standard error.  
5. 
*p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001
 
 
6. 
Bollen-stine bootstrap is a measure for the goodness-of-fit in case of non normal data for a path 
model. Based on this outcome the model can be accepted.
 
7. 
Source: Amos analysis of merged data from questionnaires: ‘Politics and Values’, ‘Work and 
Schooling’, ‘Women and their social environment’, Liss Panel, Centerdata, University of 
Tilburg, November 2010. 
 
 
 

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Chapter 5 - The social origins of Dutch mothers’ gender values and ideal family life 
149 
Table 17. Standardized total effects of model 2 (belonging to table 16) of dependent 
variable ideal family life  
 
Egalitarian Ideal family 
Life 
1. 
Gender values 
.400 
2. 
Education .211 
3. 
Partner present 
-.330 
4. 
Age 1.030 
5. 
Age squared 
-.972 
6. 
Religiousness -.065 
7. 
Respondent’s mothers’ educational level 
.030 
8. 
Work oriented  mother 
.215 
9. 
Message parents, caring for others is important  
-.127 
10.  Message parents, work is a mean to earn money  
-.065 
Source: Amos analysis of merged data from questionnaires: ‘Politics and Values’, ‘Work and 
Schooling’, ‘Women and their social environment’, Liss Panel, Centerdata, University of Tilburg, 
November 2010. 
Mothers who have received the parental message that work is above all a means 
by which to earn money, which is a rather instrumental view of work and one 
which does not appealing to one’s intrinsic work motivation, tend to have more 
traditional gender values. A mother who, as a juvenile, experienced her own 
mother enjoying her work, or else wishing to have had paid work (28 per cent of 
the mothers), endorses more egalitarian general gender values. 
In addition, the educational level of a respondent’s mother is related to the 
respondent’s general gender values, which also demonstrates the significance of 
social stratification theory. The educational level of the father has no additional 
effect.  
A mother’s ideal family life appears also to be directly affected by primary 
socialization. Mothers who recall the rather traditional and gender-specific 
message that caring for others is important (32 per cent of the mothers) tend to 
prefer a more traditional ideal family life, independent of their general gender 
values. And a mother who, as a juvenile, experienced that her own mother 
enjoyed her work or wishing to have had paid work also endorses a more 
egalitarian family life, making the total standardized effect of the respondent’s 
mother’s work attitude rather large. 
Remarkably, the variable covering whether the respondent’s mother was in 
paid work or not does not have a significant effect on a mother’s gender values or 
ideal family life. This finding indicates that it is the parental transmission of 
attitudes, rather than parental behaviour, that is most salient in analysing adults’ 
values and ideals, though it does so subtly and unintentionally (also Moen et al., 
1997). 
 
 

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