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Chapter 7 - Exploring the social biographical patterns of Dutch mothers’ attitudes 
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and rehearse with symbols. Possible mental and verbal symbols associated with 
attitudes towards paid work that parents have intentionally or unintentionally 
‘taught’ their children include, for example, money, joy, obligation, status, 
independence, social life, creativity, boredom, fatigue or paternity.   
Not many studies have addressed the influence of parental socialization on 
adults’ attitudes. Nonetheless, intrafamilial continuity is likely to become more 
apparent as the younger generation moves into full adult status, which includes 
major life transitions such as marriage, parenthood and employment (in Inman-
Amos, Hendrick and Hendrick 1994, p.460; also Ryan 2001). Once people 
become parents, they tend to act in the way in which their own parents divided 
responsibilities (Biddle et al., 1980, p.1072; Denuwelaere, 2003; De Valk, 2008; 
Van Putten, 2009). Yet, as already described, children do not automatically 
mimic parental behaviour; it is a much more subtle affair, and in particular 
attitudes are transmitted (Mason, 2000, p.240; Moen et al., 1997; Thornton, 
Alwin and Camburn, 1983). Parents’ implicit messages, attitudes and feelings 
concerning their own division of labour are also picked up by their offspring, 
such as feelings of unfairness about the actual division of labour or regrets about 
missed opportunities.  
Various empirical studies, mainly employed in Western societies, have 
demonstrated processes of primary gender socialization. Children of parents with 
‘modern’ values have a more egalitarian perspective on work and family roles 
than children of parents with more traditional values, who are expected to stick to 
the ‘breadwinner model’ (Barret and White, 2002; De Valk, 2008; Trent and 
South, 1992; Van Wel and Knijn, 2006). Higher rates of parental religious 
participation lead to more traditional attitudes regarding gender specialisation in 
the family (Cunningham, 2001;
 De Valk, 2008; Thompson, 1991). Other studies 
have shown 
that women work more hours if their parents attach positive value to 
paid work (Hooghiemstra, 2000).  Several studies have also shown that the 
transmission of values and attitudes occurs primarily via the parent of the same 
gender (Bandura, 1977; Moen et al., 1997; Tuck et al., 1994; Weinshenker, 
2006). For example, having a working mother has a stimulating effect on the 
employment behaviour of the daughter (Marks and Houston, 2002b; Sanders, 
1997; Van Putten, 2009). Moen et al. (1997) concluded that socialization 
processes for women operate mainly through verbal persuasion from their 
mothers, rather than through role modelling (p.291). 
This study builds on such scientific work, and examines whether the diversity 
of Dutch mothers’ gender and work attitudes can be explained by differences in 
parental implicit and explicit behaviour (gender roles), norms, values and 
attitudes. The first research question of this chapter is: 
Can the origins of a mother’s personal gender and work attitudes be found in 
the conduct and attitudes of her parents?  

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
168 
7.5 Secondary 
socialization 
As a person lives on, they must learn to function in any new group or organisation 
(sub-world) that they enter. She or he learns not only new practices, but also new 
values and norms, new vocabulary, and new ways of interacting with others. 
Secondary socialization agents serve as instructors, inhibitors, dis-inhibitors, 
facilitators, stimulus enhancers and emotional arousers (Bandura, 1977, p.50). 
The formal processes of secondary socialization persist with an essential problem: 
they are always determined by an earlier process of primary socialization. As 
such, they must deal with a pre-formed self and an already internalized world 
(Handel, 2006; Wallace and Wolf, 2006, p.290). Additionally, while primary 
socialization cannot take place without an emotionally charged identification of 
the child with her significant others, most secondary socialization can occur with 
a minimum of identification that is necessary for any communication between 
human beings. The individual keeps a subjective distance from the sub-worlds, 
only adopting them deliberately and purposefully (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, 
p.163). This artificial aspect of secondary socialization makes the internalization 
of discrepant worlds in secondary socialization an entirely different arrangement - 
they can be useful pragmatically, and can have much less subjective inevitability 
compared to the contents of primary socialization.   
Compared to the internalized base-world, there will be differences and 
disagreements about values, norms, vocabulary and ways of interacting within 
and among the different sub-worlds. At many levels, contradictions between and 
within the disparate settings exist (Bandura, 1977, p.44; Handel, 2006, p.17). The 
different perspectives of significant others are fraught with possibilities of 
internal conflict and guilt (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.190). People cannot 
simply accept each set of roles for themselves (Eagle, 1988). The individual is 
therefore often confronted with a dilemma of consistency, which she can typically 
solve either by modifying her reality or by clinging to reality-maintaining 
relationships (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.170).  Berger and Luckmanns’ 
principle assumption is that the individual likes their identity being confirmed, 
and significant others are vital for this ongoing substantiation of their identity 
(Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.170). Within the social process of reality-
maintenance, people tend to avoid less important others who have deviant 
practices, norms and values compared to their own (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, 
p.169). Other scholars have argued that throughout their lives people establish an 
acceptable position for themselves out of all these contradictions (Eagle, 1988; 
Handel, 2006). 
Also Berger and Luckmann (1967) acknowledged that partial transformations 
of identity are common, especially in relation to individuals’ social mobility and 
occupational training (p.181). However, it has also been emphasised that even 
within partial transformations there is a continuing association with symbols, 
persons and groups who were previously significant. Due to the fact that prior 
associations continue to linger in people’s minds (often also physically in their 

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