Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
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structures. Smart argues that this is a very unrealistic notion; what these theories 
miss is connectedness (Smart, 2007). Connectedness - the view that an 
individual’s action is always related and embedded with his or her social 
environment - is central to socialization theory. Socialization theory provides us 
with an explanation of how and why gender-specific labour market trajectories 
persist.
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 It argues, for example, that culturally-defined gender roles are ‘taught’, 
meaning that children learn to distinguish female and male role expectations from 
an early age (Ampogo, 2001; Bandura 1977; Berger and Luckmann, 1967; 
Handel, 2006).  
The narrative of free choice towards work seems especially applicable in the 
Netherlands. Existing Dutch labour time laws
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 and social arrangements at branch 
level, between employers’ organisations and trade unions, enable part-time work 
(Kremer, 2007; Tijdens, 2006; Van Doorne-Huiskes and Schipper, 2010; Visser 
and Hemerick, 1997). In almost all advanced economies, women have a 
preference for part-time work, but in many countries social institutions within 
welfare regimes constrain the ability of translating people’s preferences into 
behaviour (Fagan, 2001; Jacob, 2008; Hakim, 2003b, p.341; McDonald et al., 
2006; Reynolds, 2003). In the Netherlands, Dutch women seem to have more 
opportunities to ‘choose’ their preferred working pattern (Plantenga, 2002), and 
Hakim presumes that for this reason Dutch women have, compared to other 
affluent societies, one of the highest satisfaction levels concerning their work 
hours (Hakim, 2003d, p.76).  
However, social institutions in the Netherlands have not resulted in a uniform 
part-time labour market pattern for Dutch women. Moreover, it is increasingly 
recognised that national institutional and societal norms do not work out equally 
for every woman; on the contrary, “there is mounting evidence for differential 
effects on different types of women” (Steiber and Haas, 2012, p.359). Conse-
quently, not only in the Netherlands, but in most other Western countries too, the 
female employment pattern is heterogeneous. This study aims to achieve a better 
understanding of such variation. 
Of particular interest in this study is the notion that people do not solely live 
in one normative social system. People are involved in multiple social settings or 
circles, and each circle has its own normative and cultural system, with specific 
rules, norms and values. On a micro-level, therefore, life has specific and 
different constituents for every single woman, although at many levels 
contradictions between the different settings exist. “Putting it differently, no child 
is simply born into society but rather into particular locations in society – a 
social class, an ethnic group, a type of neighbourhood. The socialization agents 
                                                           
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  Symbolic interactionists define gender as an ongoing role, continuously taking place in social 
interaction, wherein women and men perform and sustain their own femininity and masculinity 
(West and Zimmerman, 1987). 
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   The Working Hours Adjustment Act of 2000 gives an employee the right to request a reduction of 
work hours, unless the employer can prove that this would jeopardise the company's interests (Van 
Doorne-Huiskes and Schippers, 2010). 

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Introduction 
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in different social segments present different expectations to children, who will, 
accordingly, have different socialization experiences” (Handel, 2006, p.17). 
People cannot simply accept each set of roles for them. Throughout their lives, 
people establish an acceptable position for themselves out of all these 
contradictions (Eagle, 1988).  Accordingly, even if people live in a single 
normative system on a macro level, like a society or region, they also live in 
different and discerning sub-societies. These sub-societies are patterned by 
personal social backgrounds and by the distributive dimension of the social 
system, reflected in patterning of the allocation of resources (Layder, 1994, 
p.143). Each sub-system has its own specific normative standards, and therefore 
individuals are able to hold different attitudes and perform numerous forms of 
behaviour.  
In explaining how women arrive at diverse labour market choices, I argue that 
one should focus on these different social settings, which vary depending on 
different personal biographies and social networks, and many of which existed 
prior to their experience of entering motherhood (Blair-Loy, 2003; Duncan, 
2005). Nevertheless, it is not only important to understand that work preferences 
develop within different social relational and hierarchical contexts, but also how 
such preferences develop.  The motivation for this study extends to questioning 
which values and attitudes of these social networks influence career-relevant 
preferences and attitudes for women. The central question of this study is: 
Can specific (micro) socialization processes explain the current differences 
among Dutch mothers’ gender and work values, attitudes and work preferences, 
and how, in turn, do work preferences affect mothers’ labour market behaviour? 
 

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