Chapter 8 - Synthesis: overview and discussion
193
In addition, there is some evidence that the ‘acceptance’ of inequalities is
sustained by collective or joint memories from their own fathers, functioning as
‘mental codes’. The findings of the qualitative study revealed that in the back of
their minds, mothers have vivid pictures of their fathers sitting on the couch with
a newspaper, compared to which the contributions of their own husband seem a
big improvement. Smart (2007) previously demonstrated the salient effect of
collective memories that influence individuals’ behaviour
and bind people who
belong to the same generation.
In brief, among the interviewed mothers there seems to be a general absence
of gender consciousness, and it appears that societal expectations, which shape
gender norms, have indeed ‘gone underground’ (Beagon et al., 2007). A
consensus of accepting the ‘natural’ differences between men and women seems
present in the Netherlands (Van Doorne-Huiskes and Schippers, 2010; Wiesmann
et al., 2010). Nonetheless, mothers do have varying perceptions of these
inequalities, and therefore their ‘acceptance’ has a diverse character. Mothers
with traditional or adaptive attitudes do not see inequalities,
but rather perceive
the situation of mothers having small part-time jobs as natural, or else do not
consider it their right to complain, since as stay-at-home mothers they have no
paid work themselves. Egalitarian mothers find it more or less normal that their
husbands take on a large part of the unpaid work, but seem to surrender to the
remaining inequalities, such as having to be the one to pick up the telephone to
call a baby-sitter or buy presents for their children’s friends.
Personal work attitudes
Only two of the respondents’ work attitudes exerted a positive effect on mothers’
work preference: “I like to work” and “I work in order
to be economically
independent of others”. This result may be a consequence of the fact that in the
questionnaire mothers were forced to choose their most relevant attitudes, since
they could only select three answers out of eleven propositions regarding their
work life attitudes. Consequently, in the survey, only 30 percent chose the
possibility “I work in order to be economically independent”, whereas if
respondents could choose all possible work ethics, 74 per cent of mothers
confirmed that they find it important to be economically independent (Merens et
al., 2011, p.99). Hakim claimed that most types of public opinion surveys
reveal
apparently contradictory general attitudes, especially in highly tolerant societies
such as the Netherlands, “
as if all behaviours are regarded as acceptable”
(Hakim, 2003, p.341). Additionally, as a consequence of the specific
questionnaire used, mothers probably only chose their strongest personal
attitudes, since Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) assume that the more positive and
robust (i.e. consistent and easily accessible in memory) the attitude,
the stronger
will be the effect of the person’s intention to perform the behaviour of interest.
Consequently, the gradient of work preferences could only be explained by a few
personal (strong) work attitudes. Most work life attitudes had no additional effect.
Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers
194
Also in the qualitative study, work attitudes did not come up as differentiating
in explaining mothers’ diverse work preferences. Almost all Dutch mothers
endorsed the intrinsic values of work as doing something useful for society, self-
development, and social contacts, and there appeared to be a common absence of
career ambitions. Previous research
has already revealed that men, as opposed to
women, cling more to instrumental work values, like salaries and careers (Merens
et al., 2011). These instrumental values have no priority in mothers’ work
ambitions, in line with the reasoning of this study, presumably because few
significant others have ‘taught’ mothers to aspire towards these aspects. Mothers’
intrinsic work attitudes, as well as fathers’ instrumental views, can be perceived
as socially engendered attitudes, since they are shaped in the context of earlier
prevailing assumptions about women’s and men’s appropriate roles at home and
in the labour market (Charles and Harris, 2007; Duncan, 2005; Everingham et al.,
2007; Halrynjo and Lyng, 2009; Komter, 1990a, 1990b; McDonald et al., 2006).
Interestingly, the interviewed mothers differed clearly
on one aspect of their
work attitudes, largely corresponding to the quantitative results. Mothers with
egalitarian attitudes recited that they (also) work for their economic
independence. For women who cling to their economic independence, it seems –
as with men - very unlikely that ‘bad’ jobs will push them towards domesticity.
The qualitative study allowed us to construct a typology of the Dutch mothers
included in the research group, which is shown in table 22.
Table 22. Typology of interviewed Dutch mothers based on their employment
narratives.
Drifters
Privilegeds
Balancers
Ambitious
Average actual work
hours
0
16-24 hours
25-35 hours
>35 hours
Narrative of choice ‘Self
agency towards their
work life
- ++ +
++
Preferred work hours
16-24 hours
16-24 hours
25-35 hours
>35 hours
Work
attitude
+
+
++
++
Attachment to economic
independence
_ _ ++
++
Gender attitude
Traditional/
adaptive
Traditional/
adaptive
Adaptive/
Egalitarian
Egalitarian
Satisfaction current
gender division of labour
+/- ++ +/-
+
Early adult attitude
towards motherhood
++ ++ +/-
+/-
-=absent, +/-=ambivalent or variable, +=positive, ++= very positive
Stay-at-home mothers’ work histories could be
characterised as ad hoc and
random, lacking significant motivation to achieve their earlier educational or
professional choices. Therefore they were identified as ‘drifters’. Their stories