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Chapter 5 - The social origins of Dutch mothers’ gender values and ideal family life 
135 
about their future employment as a mother were associated with their own 
mothers’ employment histories and support for gender egalitarianism.
 
Other 
studies demonstrated that having religious parents correlates with more traditional 
work-life preferences among their children (Barret and Raskin White, 2002, 
p.453; Thompson, 1991). In addition, studies have shown that gender values and 
attitudes are especially transferred via the same-sex-parent (Moen et al., 1997; 
Tuck, Rolfe and Adair, 1994; Weinshenker 2006). 
Based on described theoretical and empirical work, in this study 
I expect that 
if a mother recalls positive work-oriented values and attitudes from her parents, 
especially from her own mother, she will have more egalitarian gender values and 
lifestyle ideal herself. Mothers with more traditional gender attitudes (values and 
personal ideals) will have learned more home-orientated and care values for 
mothers, and segregated roles for the father and mother.  
5.6 Secondary 
socialization: 
perceived professional and career 
support of significant others 
Secondary socialization is the subsequent process of socialization of an already 
socialized individual, which takes place in later phases of life away from the 
parental home, for example through education, peer groups, partners and working 
environments (Wallace and Wolf, 2006, p.290). When a person is making a major 
commitment, such as entering a new relationship, a new religion or occupation, 
the individual is also making a significant changes in life that can be described as 
developing a new self. Yet the process of secondary socialization still contains an 
inherent problem: it must deal with an already formed identity and an already 
internalized world (Handel, 2006; Wallace and Wolf, 2006, p.290). Moreover, 
within the different and new social settings, there will be differences, 
disagreements and contradictions at many different levels, concerning values, 
norms, vocabulary and ways of interacting (Bandura, 1977, p.44; Handel, 2006, 
p.17). Subsequently, people will make a distinction between significant others 
and less important others, and will tend to avoid the social reality of less 
important others that have deviant practices, norms and values compared to their 
own, referring to the process of self-selection (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, 
p.169; also Brown et al., 1993). Other scholars argue instead that throughout their 
lives people establish an acceptable position for themselves out of all these 
contradictions (Bandura, 1977, p.48; Eagle, 1988; Handel, 2006).  
Within a cross-sectional research method it is impossible to examine the 
causality of the relationship between the influence of secondary socialization and 
mothers own gender values and attitudes. Therefore, in this study I only examine 
the relationship between prior perceived support of secondary others towards 
mothers’ professional choices and career ambitions on the one hand, and mothers’ 
current gender values and ideal family life on the other. The theoretical choice to 
focus on the perceived support is also induced by the socialization theory of 
Berger and Luckmann (1967), the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
136 
Ajzen and Fishbein, 1973, 2005) and the social learning theory of Bandura 
(1977). These theories agree in their views that the perceived approval of 
significant others towards specific behaviours will have a positive impact on 
people’s own values and attitudes related to the specific behaviour. This 
theoretical notion also corresponds with the contingent consistency theory, which 
suggests that the effect of attitudes on behaviour grows stronger when a person 
perceives that there is social support for his intended behaviour (Grube and 
Morgan, 1990). 
The influence of the professional and career support of significant others on 
mothers’ general gender values and ideal family life appears rather unexplored. 
Moreover, studies that do address these social influences mostly reveal a lack of 
encouragement of women’s career ambitions due to stereotypical gender 
expectations. For example, Portegijs et al. (2008b) found that in general, Dutch 
partners do not often talk with their wife about the couple’s balance of 
employment (p.105). And when they do, mothers are more often influence by 
their partners to work fewer hours, rather than to work more (also Portegijs in 
Keuzenkamp et al., 2009, p.76). Nonetheless, the relationship between the gender 
values and attitudes of both partners must pre-eminently be perceived as two-
directional. On the one hand, based on homogamy in mate selections, people seek 
marital partners with similar (gender) values and attitudes (Inman-Amos et al., 
1994). On the other hand, it is possible that the partners’ attitudes will have 
become similar over the years, as their marriage or partnership matures. Hoffnung 
and Williams (2013) revealed with their longitudinal study (1994-2009) among 
approximately 200 women living in the US, that career-oriented, ‘have it all’ 
women often have found partners who supported their full-time work. Their 
‘husbands’ appeared more family-oriented and less career-oriented than the 
partners of traditional women, or they had a lower educational level and thus 
earning capacity. Preferences of both partners and situational constraints are 
together apparent in a mother’s employment decision-making process (Hoffnung 
and Williams, 2013; also Geist, 2005). 
In addition, previous research has shown that organisational and supervisor 
support can encourage or discourage a woman’s work attitude and ambitions 
(Estes, 2005; Karatepe and  Kilic, 2007; Moen and Yu, 2000). But women’s 
ambitions, especially those of mothers, seem to be frequently neglected or 
underestimated by their supervisors (King, 2008, p.1703; Ostroff and Atwater, 
2003).  
Furthermore, some studies have demonstrated that teachers who communicate 
that they have high expectations of their pupils can bring about positive changes 
in their behaviour (Grusec and Hastings, 2007, p.391; Wentzel et al., 2010). 
Nonetheless, teachers can reinforce gender roles, often unintentionally, by their 
different stereotypical expectations for the boys and girls in their classes 
(Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine and Beilock, 2012; Sáïnz, Palmer and Garcia-
Cuesta, 2012). The influence of teacher’s professional support at the onset of 
adulthood on women’s adult gender values and ideals appears, as far as I know, 

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