Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Chapter 8 - Synthesis: overview and discussion 
205 
Different persuasive verbal codes were “you should work in order to become 
economically independent”, or “caring for others is important”. Transmission of 
these mental and verbal codes, examples of which include “the proper thing to 
do” as perceived by parents, teachers, spouses, people at work, and “other people 
out there”, appeared vital social contexts in which mothers developed their own 
values and attitudes and made decisions about their lives.  
Mothers’ preferences and actions are thus firmly embedded within their 
shared and personal social structures. In getting a better understanding of people’s 
choices, I would therefore argue that we must get closer to the collectiveness and 
connectedness within people’s (prior) social relational contexts, rather than 
emphasising the narrative of free choice. As Smart (2007) has formulated, we 
should prioritise the bonds between people.  

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Epilogue 
 
In this section I draw attention to a few issues that have received only moderate 
attention in this study, as well as possible lines for future research and some 
political implications. 
1 
The impact of social institutions on mothers’ employment 
choices 
This study is rooted in the sociological perspective of phenomenological 
sociology. Phenomenology asks us not to take the notions we have learned for 
granted, but to question them instead – to question our way of looking at and 
being in the world (Wallace and Wolf, 2006, p.262). The emphasis on the micro 
level, while investigating the origins of individuals’ diverse behaviour within one 
shared social system or society, entailed that the influence of macro institutions 
on mother’s labour market decisions could be described historically and 
theoretically in this study, but could not be directly, empirically investigated. In 
this study it is recognised that mothers’ employment choices are constrained and 
made possible by cultural gender norms, financial circumstances, the availability 
and character of jobs, the business cycle of the labour market, and childcare 
provisions. Theoretically, it was assumed that these macro influences in the 
Netherlands have similar consequences for all Dutch women. In the light of these 
constraints and opportunities, mothers make choices regarding their amount of 
time spent in paid work, though admittedly these choices are typically 
engendered. Following this line, it was believed that a mother’s perception of 
limiting or enabling external social institutions is intertwined with her own 
gender values and attitudes, which are partly a result of socialization.  
Nonetheless, the interplay between the use or availability of external 
provisions, for example professional childcare provisions, and mothers’ own 
values and attitudes is not systematically investigated in this study, even though it 
does make up part of the (albeit not statistically representative) qualitative study. 
Moreover, although Dutch mothers are subject to the same Dutch social 
institutions, these institutions might differ between regions, for example by local 
insufficient supply of suitable jobs, a lack of childcare facilities or specific local 
normative standards towards parenting, such as being strongly religious. In time, 
a mother might adapt her gender and work values and attitudes to these local 
social institutional settings. On the other hand, the Netherlands is a small country 
and it is unlikely that large groups of mothers subject themselves to social 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
208 
surroundings that do not match their own values and attitudes, since this would be 
contrary to the mechanism of self-selection that emerged in the qualitative study.  
2 
Hierarchical layers within socialization 
Furthermore, this study has only very moderately shed light on the question of 
how differences in mothers’ attitudes correspond to different socialization 
processes related to their various socio-economic backgrounds or social classes. 
Only the educational level of the mothers’ parents, which may act as a proxy for 
social class, is included in the quantitative part of the study.  Empirically, 
respondents with more egalitarian gender values corresponded to those with 
higher-educated mothers. Previous research has demonstrated that parental 
influences differ in accordance with their different socio-economic backgrounds 
(Kraaykamp, 2009; Lareau, 2007). It would be interesting to investigate the 
influence of different generations’ socio-economic backgrounds upon mothers’ 
orientations towards the labour market. By analysing a large Dutch sample, the 
study of Cloïn (2010) demonstrated that different socio-economic backgrounds 
only slightly add to the explanation of the diverse employment patterns between 
higher and lower educated women. Lower educated mothers are more likely to be 
in paid work if they had a mother who was in paid work herself when raising her 
child; lower educated mothers tend to work more hours if their mother was higher 
educated. 
Presumably, in-depth qualitative research on parental socialization regarding 
different socio-economic backgrounds would allow us to gain more insights with 
respect to this question. For example, Lareau (2007) has shown with qualitative 
research that the mechanisms of the middle class and working class differ 
significantly in terms of their transmission of social-cultural advantages. 
Cumulative differences, like fostering children’s talents by offering structured 
leisure activities and wider ways of thinking, defined as ‘concerted cultivation’, 
creates advantages for middle-class children in how they interact with 
professionals (doctors and educators) and other adults outside the home. It is not 
hard to imagine that these different advantages among working-class and middle-
class children, based on ‘different senses of entitlement or distrust’, further 
accumulate as they grow older, in particular from the moment such individuals 
join the labour market. In this respect, it would be interesting to employ 
(observational participant) longitudinal research that is sensitive to how these 
differences in socio-cultural inheritances among children influence their social 
interactions in later life, in particular at specific turning points that affect their 
later steps in the labour market. Nonetheless, it is clear that this type of research 
is expensive and difficult to pursue, therefore a second best alternative would be 
analysing people’s life stories and behaviour, and then relating the differences 
between their socio-economic backgrounds.  

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