Chapter 7 - Exploring the social biographical patterns of Dutch mothers’ attitudes
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work.” (Juul, 40 years old, 2 children, 32 hours, egalitarian, university
degree).
Thus, although mothers’ egalitarian attitudes often have origins in their youth,
at least at one point in their career they
also have been stimulated by their bosses
and colleagues, which re-enforced their support to equal gender roles and
attachment to the labour market.
Traditional/adaptive women have fewer examples or stories of supervisors or
colleagues who have been particularly stimulating towards their performances.
This is expected to be as a consequence of the fact
that they have spent fewer
hours in paid labour. However, previous research has demonstrated that mothers’
job ambitions generally are often neglected
(Heilman and Okimoto, 2008; King,
2006
).
7.8 Conclusions
Various empirical Dutch studies have shown that the diversity of female
employment in the Netherlands is related to women’s diverse gender and work
attitudes (Beets et al., 1997; Cloïn, 2010; Hooghiemstra, 2000; Kraaykamp, 2012;
Portegijs et al., 2008). This qualitative and explorative study sheds light on the
question of whether an explanation for this diversity lies in different (prior) micro
socialization processes. Do different micro socialization processes reveal the
origins of Dutch mothers’ diverse personal gender and work attitudes
?
The findings show how differences in primary socialization
are relevant to an
understanding of Dutch mothers’ current diverse gender and work attitudes.
Various mechanisms and patterns that emerged seem to have had discerning
effects. Firstly, it appeared that intergenerational influence mainly occurs via the
transmission of mental symbols, both intentionally and unintentionally, and
especially diffused by the respondent’s own mother, as demonstrated by earlier
research (Moen et al., 1997; Thornton et al., 1983). Examples of these maternal
mental codes are the respondents’ mothers’ own attitudes towards the traditional
mother role, like their being satisfied or unsatisfied, and their being consenting or
reluctant. The interviewees with traditional/adaptive gender attitudes seemed
almost unquestionably familiarized with the silent presence and consenting
performance of unpaid tasks by their own mothers. Now
being mothers
themselves, they naturally and automatically identify with the traditional ‘mother
role’. The narratives of mothers with egalitarian attitudes stood out due to their
strong memories of their own mother’s presence. She could be the dominant sole
provider, or else could be unsatisfied with the mother-role. There were also few
examples where the maternal codes were too penetrating and in cases even
irritated their daughters. Subsequently such mothers functioned as anti-examples,
unintentionally causing their daughters to go on and develop opposite attitudes. In
addition, the maternal message that one should achieve economic independence
Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers
182
appeared to be a strong verbal code in relation to mothers’
current gender and
work attitudes.
The findings further illustrate that it is relevant to notice those things that were
absent from the narratives of mothers’ childhoods. For example, there may have
lacked a specific message relating to their daughter’s future profession. When
mothers have not been stimulated (either verbally or mentally) to consider their
professional life seriously, it seemed difficult to overcome this arrearage later in
life. The unfavourable consequences of an absence of professional support
seemed prevalent in mothers’ secondary socialization processes. A
significant
parental message towards work and financial autonomy appeared more present in
the childhood stories of mothers with egalitarian attitudes, and more absent in the
recollections of traditional/adaptive mothers. Additionally, some specific and
unusual family situations called upon daughters to become responsible at a very
young age. The interviewees who now support symmetrical gender roles often
seemed in different ways more or less ‘forced’ to grow up as independent young
women very quickly – a childhood characteristic resulting in the
appearance that
they are well-equipped for the labour market.
With respect to processes of secondary socialization, it seems unlikely that the
part of personal gender and work attitudes with origins in childhood may easily
adjust to changing circumstances. On the contrary, mothers’ narratives revealed
that some parental mental and verbal symbols still affect whether or not they put
themselves into new social settings (Mason, 2000; Ridgeway and Correl, 2004;
Risman, 2004). Such a process can otherwise be referred to as that of self-
selection (Bandura, 1977; Berger and Luckmann, 1967). This study confirms, for
example,
that in general, people seek and marry partners with a similar sex-role
ideology as their own (Hoffnung and Willimans, 2013; Inman-Amos et al., 1994;
Uunk, 1996). Egalitarian mothers often have found ‘fitting’ partners who are
stimulating towards their career ambitions. This is contrary to the conjugal
discussions within traditional/adaptive couples, where it is not evident that
mothers work (also Moen and Dempster-McClain, 1987, p.587).
Furthermore, the study revealed a mechanism of intensifying egalitarian
attitudes by encouraging supervisors. This result is interesting because previous
research demonstrated that mothers’ ambitions are mostly neglected by
supervisors, contributing to the withdrawal of mothers from the
labour market
(Estes, 2005; Karatepe and Kilic, 2007; King 2008; Moen and Yu, 2000).
Furthermore, a glimpse of the potential positive influence of teachers as helping
hands in mothers’ professional choices showed how mother’s career intentions
can be intensified by people’s encouragement, but also left undeveloped or
weakened by a lack of social support.
The impact of peer groups on mothers’ gender and work attitudes remained
undetermined. The interviewed mothers generally did not belong to homogenous
peer groups.
Nonetheless, anonymous people ‘out there’ seemed, at least in the
mind of some interviewees, able to pressurise mothers’ feelings. Stay-at-home
mothers in particular appeared to be sensitive to the critical gaze and comments