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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
150 
Hypothesis 3: 
A mother endorses more egalitarian gender values and a more egalitarian 
ideal family life if she perceived support from teachers at secondary school in 
her professional choice. 
 
Hypothesis 4:  
A mother endorses more egalitarian gender values and a more egalitarian 
ideal family life if she perceived the career support from significant others.  
In the third path model, the perceived professional support of teachers and career 
support from significant others are both included. The explained variance of the 
model for gender values increased to about 18 per cent, and for ideal family life 
to about 65 per cent (table 18).  
If a mother recalls the support of teachers in her choice of occupation, she 
prefers a more egalitarian family life, as is expected in hypothesis 3, but 
unexpectedly perceived previous professional support of her teacher does not 
relate to her general values.  
Previous career support from her partner is significantly associated with more 
egalitarian general gender values. The same applies to the past presence of 
stimulating people at work, such as colleagues and bosses.  Within the path 
model, the parental norms and values are no longer significantly related to her 
general gender values. Apparently, the parental influences on her general gender 
values, except for the influence of the educational level of a respondent’s mother, 
operate through the effect of secondary socialization agents.  
 
 

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Chapter 5 - The social origins of Dutch mothers’ gender values and ideal family life 
151 
Table 18. Model 3: 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  
.279 
2.042*** 
(.159) 
-  
2. 
Education .065 
0.47** 
(.016) 
.220 .022*** 
(.003) 
3. 
Age .443 
.052 
* 
(.022) 
.951 .015*** 
(.005) 
4. 
Age square 
-.411 
.055* 
(.025) 
-.696 -.016** 
(.005) 
5. 
Partner present 
-.230 
-.231*** 
(.050) 
n.s.  
6. 
Religiousness n.s. 
 
-.873 
-.022*** 
(.004) 
7. 
Education mother 
n.s. 
 
.098 
.013** 
(.005) 
8. 
Message parents. works is a 
mean to earn money 
n.s.  n.s.  
9. 
Message parents: caring for 
others is important 
-.101 -.101* 
(.040) 
n.s.  
10.  Work oriented  mother 
.105 .105** 
(.041) 
n.s.  
11.  Professional support by 
teacher 
.135 .135** 
(.050) 
n.s.  
12.  Career support by partner 
n.s. 
 
.182 
.025*** 
(.006) 
13.  Career support by 
supervisors and colleagues 
.157 .158*** 
(.044) 
.304 .042*** 
(.007) 
Intercept  
.017 
(.468) 
 -.041 
(.087) 
Squared Multiple corr. (R2) .653 
  .180 
 
Degrees of freedom 
14 
 
 
 
Bollen-stine bootstrap 
p =.001 
 
 
 
1. 
As independent and dependent variable general gender values, including control variables and 
primary and secondary 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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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
152 
Table 19. Standardized total effects belonging to model 3 (belonging to table 18) of 
dependent variable Ideal family life 
 
Egalitarian 
Ideal family Life 
1. 
Gender values 
.279 
2. 
Education .126 
3. 
Partner present 
.230 
4. 
Age .708 
5. 
Age squared 
-.655 
6. 
Religiousness -.046 
7. 
Respondent’s mothers’ educational level 
.027 
8. 
Work oriented  mother 
.105 
9. 
Message parents, caring for others is important  
-.101 
10.  Motivated by teacher 
.135 
11.  Motivated by partner 
.051 
12.  Motivated by supervisors and colleagues 
.242 
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. 
Earlier experiences of supervisors and/or colleagues who stimulated her with 
respect to her work are also directly correlated with a more egalitarian ideal 
family life, which makes the total effect of stimulating people at work substantial.  
A stimulating partner is not directly related to a mother’s ideal family life, but 
only indirectly via her general values. I do not find evidence for the influence of 
stimulating friends. The effect of the control variables remains qualitatively the 
same in this model for a mother’s ideal family life.  
5.9 Conclusions 
The large variation in the working pattern of Dutch mothers makes the 
Netherlands an interesting case with which to study the origins of individual 
labour market behaviour. Previous research has shown that, next to micro-
economic factors, such as educational attainment and income, the variation in 
gender attitudes is one of the causes of the diverse employment pattern (Beets et 
al., 1997; Hakim, 2003a-c; Marks and Houston, 2002a; Portegijs et al., 2008b; 
Risman et al., 1999). Continuing in this line of research, this study has traced the 
origins of two kinds of gender attitudes, namely more general gender values, (i.e. 
the family life that a mother deems appropriate for other people), and personal 
gender attitudes (i.e. a mother’s own ideal family life). This distinction is 
important, because previous studies have shown that a mother’s personal ideal 
family life is a better predictor of her labour market behaviour than her general 
gender values (Hakim, 2003a-c; Marks and Houston, 2002a; Risman et al., 1999).  
By conducting a structural path analysis on data from a survey among a 
representative sample of 935 Dutch mothers, I tested to what extent differences in 
socialization processes explain Dutch mothers’ general gender values and their 

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