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Chapter 7 - Exploring the social biographical patterns of Dutch mothers’ attitudes 
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division of labour between men and women.  Questions towards a mother’s 
general gender attitude were: How do you perceive differences between men and 
women? Do you have an opinion about full-time working mothers or mothers 
who are not employed? 
Personal work attitudes are defined as mother’s personal motivations to 
pursue paid work. (What are the most important reasons for you to work? Did 
you have ideas about your future profession at a young age?). A strong personal 
work attitude means that someone was already as a young adult strongly oriented 
to pursue paid work and is intrinsically motivated to work. 
Following this, the mothers were asked several questions about their family 
backgrounds, looking back to when they were 12 years old. In particular, this 
included questions addressing the gender division of labour of their parents (Did 
your parents work? Did your father help with household chores and childcare? 
Were your parents happy about their division of tasks?), parental attitudes (What 
were the important norms, values, and (implicit and explicit) messages that were 
transmitted by your parents?). In addition, several questions were asked on 
upbringing matters, like whether the parents were strict or encouraged their 
daughters to fulfil their full potential at school or at work.  
Finally, several questions were asked about how mothers perceived their 
attitudes and behaviours to have been influenced by teachers, partners, close 
friends, people at work, specific role models or others, in fulfilling their full 
professional potential.  
Interview analysis  
The research was specifically sensitive to perceiving the lives of the respondents 
in terms of continuity and process, especially referring to the theoretically 
assumed continuity throughout the course of life between primary and secondary 
socialization processes (Berger and Luckmann, 1967; Bandura, 1977). Therefore, 
the interview transcripts of each respondent were not cut into different codes, but 
kept as close as possible to each story told by the respondents.  
The main part of the analysis consisted of searching for sensitizing concepts 
that could be used as pegs to describe the central narratives of, and the similarities 
within, the different groups. The sensitizing concepts were: ideals and acceptance 
towards the marital division of labour, importance of economic independence, 
parental roles, positions, messages and attitudes, presence or absence of 
stimulating parents and significant others towards mother’s professional life. 
Following this, the transcripts were reread while focusing on these sensitizing 
concepts, and memos were written throughout the process. 
Below, the findings are described along the two research questions, while 
attention is given to the sensitizing concepts. The narratives of mothers’ attitudes 
could be patterned along two groups: traditional-adaptive attitudes versus 
egalitarian attitudes. The differences between these groups are specifically 
addressed. When this study refers to a “majority of women”, “most”, or “women 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
174 
in general”, as a rule of thumb this means that the observation applies to at least 
three quarters of the interviewed women within one group. There were also 
exceptions in each group, which are described where relevant. 
7.7 Findings 
Can the origins of a mother’s personal gender and work attitudes be found in 
the conduct and attitudes of her parents?  
The findings indicate that the origins of Dutch mothers’ current gender and work 
attitudes can be found in the way they have been brought up. In particular, the 
associated mental symbols – intentionally and unintentionally – transmitted by 
the mothers’ mother, seem to have a differentiating effect on mother’s current 
attitudes. In this study, mothers with traditional or adaptive attitudes often have 
no job, or else work small part-time jobs. They tend to perceive it as their natural 
role to execute most of the unpaid family tasks, and do not put much value on 
their economic independence. They also appear mostly satisfied about the 
division of the work at home with their partners, which is often around 80 per 
cent of the tasks for the mothers and 20 per cent for the fathers.  Mothers with 
more egalitarian gender attitudes, who often have large part-time or full-time 
jobs, cannot imagine not working themselves; moreover they consider it as 
unwise, citing the necessity of economic independence. They also expect a more 
equal share from their husbands in the unpaid tasks at home, which full-time 
working mothers have greater success in achieving.  
Mothers with traditional or adaptive gender attitudes generally emphasise that 
they come from warm families, and often have many happy memories from 
youth. Consistently, the relationship with their parents often is still close. On the 
question of who is a shoulder to lean on when they must make a difficult 
decision, traditional or adaptive mothers most often recall their parents.  
The parental division of work used to be traditional, not because their mothers 
did not work, but especially in the sense that their mothers unquestioningly did 
most of the unpaid family work. The presence of a caring mother, who carried out 
her unpaid duties without complaint, is recollected as a natural and self-evident 
situation by their traditional or adaptive adult daughters. Sometimes, the 
interviewees have no clear memories of their mother during primary school. Yet, 
mostly they presume that their mothers liked their role of child carer and 
housewife, although they admit they never really asked their mother. Respondents 
recall that their fathers pursued full-time jobs, and often also at home were also 
the boss.  
“My mother did everything. I found that normal. I cannot remember her 
complaining about it, or that she found it too much work or too busy. I think 
she enjoyed it, I have never asked her, to be honest. My father was just an 

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