Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers  
80 
behaviour are based on large surveys, and are in that sense deductive: hypotheses 
are tested within a framework of concepts that are conceptualised beforehand.  
These large surveys often lack the nuance and subtlety to describe what mothers 
underline themselves as relevant when describing their labour market choices. 
With a qualitative, in-depth research, the main contributional aim of this chapter 
is to achieve a better understanding of the differences in the dynamics of mothers’ 
employment decisions while using mothers’ own words.  The central question is:  
Do mothers with different working patterns also differ in their narratives of 
choice, preference and attitudes towards work and family?  
3.4 
Women’s employment preferences: a matter of choice? 
Hakim (2000) was one of the first scholars to claim that attitudinal factors, such 
as work-life preferences, are important in explaining female employment (p.168). 
According to Hakim, as a result of diverse social economic changes that started in 
the late 20
th
 century, personal lifestyle preferences are now able to predict labour 
market behaviour. These changes are labelled as the ‘new scenario’ and the 
‘contraceptive revolution’, and are cited alongside the equal-opportunity 
revolution, the expansion of white collar occupations, the creation of jobs for 
secondary earners, and the increasing importance of individual attitudes (Hakim, 
2000, 2003c).  Personal ideas about labour market participation and childcare are 
decisive in mothers’ decisions about whether to participate in paid work and to 
make use of childcare arrangements. Personal lifestyle preferences towards work 
and motherhood are different from general gender values - what people consider 
to be just for other people - which are generally vague and malleable, and lack the 
causal powers of personal preferences (Hakim, 2003c). For example, women may 
believe that mothers should be free to return to work soon after childbirth, but 
may still be reluctant to return to work so soon themselves. Hakim claims that in 
highly tolerant societies such as The Netherlands, public opinion surveys reveal 
apparently contradictory attitudes, “as all behaviours are regarded as 
acceptable” (Hakim, 2003b, p.341).  
According to Hakim, personal lifestyle preferences of women can be 
categorised into three idealised preferences, which are apparent in most Western 
societies: home-centred preferences (accounting for about 20% of women), in 
which children and family are a woman’s main concern in life; work-centred 
preferences (about 20%), when woman’s priority in life is employment and/or 
self-development; and adaptive preferences, with no fixed priority other than to 
try to combine work and family (about 60%). Women with adaptive preferences 
are the most sensitive to institutions, laws, customs, national policies and 
cultures. 
A prominent element of preference theory is the narrative of choice (Beagan 
et al., 2008, p.666). Women are freer to choose their own lifestyle as a result of 
the new economic and social scenario as described by Hakim, and additionally 
due to the reduction of household tasks on account of technology, childcare 

---

Chapter 3 - A qualitative typology of Dutch mothers’ employment narratives 
81 
facilities and family friendly policies. This line of reasoning fits into post-modern 
theories, which claim that within Western societies, individuals are increasingly 
released from traditional forms and ascribed roles, and freer than ever to choose 
their own identity (Beck, 1992). People are not only free to choose what they 
want, but are also forced to make their own decisions because there are no moral 
certainties about what is supposed to be a good life (Hakim, 2003, p.341). The 
extent of participation in the labour market can be seen as part of a self-chosen 
lifestyle.  In addition to the narrative of choice, women’s decisions with respect to 
care and work are regarded as their own individual choices, and therefore can also 
be held responsible for their achievements and failures (Everingham et al., 2007).  
Researchers have disputed post-modern theories, such as Hakim’s, as well as 
the research methods used (Crompton and Harris, 1998; De Beer, 2007; Kan, 
2007; Sullivan, 2002). These critics argued that people come up against a number 
of barriers in their everyday lives, which limit their options. Women’s 
educational attainments, their ethnic and social backgrounds (class), their 
employment records and age, all affect their future employment perspectives 
(Kangas and Rostgaard, 2007). Various empirical studies have shown that for 
many women (and men), preferences do not simply translate into behaviour 
(Tomlinson, 2006), and there is often a mismatch between preferred and actual 
work hours, because of structural and personal constraints such as the 
unavailability of jobs, companies’ social policies, financial deficits, the lack of 
social career networks and work-family conflict (Crompton and Harris, 1998; 
Reynolds, 2003). In their empirical research, Charles and Harris (2007) found 
little evidence to support the view that being ‘set free’ from the constraints of 
traditional society gives people the opportunity to engage in purposive 
constructions of their own biographies.
34
 In addition,  they found that 
individualised living arrangements are more realistic for younger generations than 
for older ones.  These conclusions are in line with Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 
(2003), who demonstrated that processes of negotiation and choices are more in 
evidence amongst younger generations, as well as amongst those who are better 
educated and well off.   
Other scholars have argued that, through the emphasis of choice and the 
privatisation of its consequences, gender structures and ascribed gender roles 
underneath these choices have become disguised.  Komter argued (1990) that as a 
consequence of the belief of free choice, the inner obligation and the moral 
standard of being a good housewife, mother and wife have become “invisible”. 
Or, as Beagan et al. (2008) described it, societal gender expectations have gone 
underground. “Experiencing constraints of women such as longer work hours, a 
double burden of paid and unpaid work, and unstable child care are seen as 
individual obstacles that have nothing to do with gender” (p.666). Charles and 
Harris (2007) emphasised that “the individualization thesis is limited in the sense 
that individuals remain ‘embedded’ in social networks and that tradition – in the 
                                                           
34
  Though, they admit that their research was mainly executed among working-class couples. 

---