Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Chapter 8 - Synthesis: overview and discussion 
193 
In addition, there is some evidence that the ‘acceptance’ of inequalities is 
sustained by collective or joint memories from their own fathers, functioning as 
‘mental codes’. The findings of the qualitative study revealed that in the back of 
their minds, mothers have vivid pictures of their fathers sitting on the couch with 
a newspaper, compared to which the contributions of their own husband seem a 
big improvement. Smart (2007) previously demonstrated the salient effect of 
collective memories that influence individuals’ behaviour and bind people who 
belong to the same generation. 
In brief, among the interviewed mothers there seems to be a general absence 
of gender consciousness, and it appears that societal expectations, which shape 
gender norms, have indeed ‘gone underground’ (Beagon et al., 2007). A 
consensus of accepting the ‘natural’ differences between men and women seems 
present in the Netherlands (Van Doorne-Huiskes and Schippers, 2010; Wiesmann 
et al., 2010). Nonetheless, mothers do have varying perceptions of these 
inequalities, and therefore their ‘acceptance’ has a diverse character. Mothers 
with traditional or adaptive attitudes do not see inequalities, but rather perceive 
the situation of mothers having small part-time jobs as natural, or else do not 
consider it their right to complain, since as stay-at-home mothers they have no 
paid work themselves. Egalitarian mothers find it more or less normal that their 
husbands take on a large part of the unpaid work, but seem to surrender to the 
remaining inequalities, such as having to be the one to pick up the telephone to 
call a baby-sitter or buy presents for their children’s friends.  
Personal work attitudes 
Only two of the respondents’ work attitudes exerted a positive effect on mothers’ 
work preference: “I like to work” and “I work in order to be economically 
independent of others”. This result may be a consequence of the fact that in the 
questionnaire mothers were forced to choose their most relevant attitudes, since 
they could only select three answers out of eleven propositions regarding their 
work life attitudes. Consequently, in the survey, only 30 percent chose the 
possibility “I work in order to be economically independent”, whereas if 
respondents could choose all possible work ethics, 74 per cent of mothers 
confirmed that they find it important to be economically independent (Merens et 
al., 2011, p.99). Hakim claimed that most types of public opinion surveys reveal 
apparently contradictory general attitudes, especially in highly tolerant societies 
such as the Netherlands, “as if all behaviours are regarded as acceptable” 
(Hakim, 2003, p.341). Additionally, as a consequence of the specific 
questionnaire used, mothers probably only chose their strongest personal 
attitudes, since Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) assume that the more positive and 
robust (i.e. consistent and easily accessible in memory) the attitude, the stronger 
will be the effect of the person’s intention to perform the behaviour of interest. 
Consequently, the gradient of work preferences could only be explained by a few 
personal (strong) work attitudes. Most work life attitudes had no additional effect. 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers  
194 
Also in the qualitative study, work attitudes did not come up as differentiating 
in explaining mothers’ diverse work preferences. Almost all Dutch mothers 
endorsed the intrinsic values of work as doing something useful for society, self-
development, and social contacts, and there appeared to be a common absence of 
career ambitions. Previous research has already revealed that men, as opposed to 
women, cling more to instrumental work values, like salaries and careers (Merens 
et al., 2011). These instrumental values have no priority in mothers’ work 
ambitions, in line with the reasoning of this study, presumably because few 
significant others have ‘taught’ mothers to aspire towards these aspects. Mothers’ 
intrinsic work attitudes, as well as fathers’ instrumental views, can be perceived 
as socially engendered attitudes, since they are shaped in the context of earlier 
prevailing assumptions about women’s and men’s appropriate roles at home and 
in the labour market (Charles and Harris, 2007; Duncan, 2005; Everingham et al., 
2007; Halrynjo and Lyng, 2009; Komter, 1990a, 1990b; McDonald et al., 2006).  
Interestingly, the interviewed mothers differed clearly on one aspect of their 
work attitudes, largely corresponding to the quantitative results. Mothers with 
egalitarian attitudes recited that they (also) work for their economic 
independence. For women who cling to their economic independence, it seems – 
as with men - very unlikely that ‘bad’ jobs will push them towards domesticity.  
The qualitative study allowed us to construct a typology of the Dutch mothers 
included in the research group, which is shown in table 22.  
Table 22. Typology of interviewed Dutch mothers based on their employment 
narratives.  
 Drifters 
Privilegeds 
Balancers 
Ambitious 
Average actual work 
hours 
0 
16-24 hours 
25-35 hours 
>35 hours 
Narrative of choice ‘Self 
agency towards their 
work life 
- ++ + 
++ 
Preferred work hours 
16-24 hours 
16-24 hours 
25-35 hours 
>35 hours 
Work attitude 
+ 
+ 
++ 
++ 
Attachment to economic 
independence 
_ _ ++ 
++ 
Gender attitude 
Traditional/ 
adaptive 
Traditional/ 
adaptive 
Adaptive/ 
Egalitarian 
Egalitarian 
Satisfaction current 
gender division of labour 
+/- ++ +/- 
+ 
Early adult attitude 
towards motherhood 
++ ++ +/- 
+/- 
-=absent, +/-=ambivalent or variable, +=positive, ++= very positive 
Stay-at-home mothers’ work histories could be characterised as ad hoc and 
random, lacking significant motivation to achieve their earlier educational or 
professional choices. Therefore they were identified as ‘drifters’. Their stories 

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