Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Chapter 8 - Synthesis: overview and discussion 
197 
remarkable in their narratives is the very absence of explicit parental norms and 
values regarding an ideal gender division of labour, accompanied by the memory 
of a self-evident and consenting ‘caring’ mother. To be more precise, daughters 
mostly assumed that their mothers enjoyed their caring and household tasks, but 
often they admit they never really discussed the issue with their mothers.  
These differences between the qualitative findings and quantitative results 
might actually exemplify different processes. Firstly, the traditional division of 
labour could have felt so natural and self-evident for all family members that 
there were no reasons to discuss or talk about it explicitly. With quantitative 
questionnaires people may feel more or less forced to fill in specific answer 
categories, even if they do not really know the answer. Nonetheless, based on the 
theory of Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) we can also expect that mothers only choose 
answers with strong and positive associations easily accessible in memory, and 
that they automatically pick the ‘right’ answer (‘right’ here in the sense that these 
parental normative values or attitudes do affect their own attitudes). Put 
differently, and to paraphrase the well-known Thomas theorem, “if people 
perceive their stories as real, they are real in their consequences” (Merton, 
1995). Yet, the quantitative results might also be explained by a process of 
cognitive dissonance – people make justifications for their current behaviour 
(Festinger et al., 1956). If a mother’s present main task and responsibility is to 
care for her children and do the household chores, she might – perhaps incorrectly 
– assume that her parents, and her mother in particular, found caring for others an 
important value as well: Why would she otherwise do so herself? Bem (1965) 
calls this the process of self-persuasion which is also a product of social 
interaction. People justify their own behaviour with answers that they think other 
people expect them to answer, based on their behaviour (e.g. “Do you like 
bread?”; “I guess I do, because I am always eating it”).  
Due to the retrospective nature of many questions within this study, and the 
cross-sectional research methods, it is impossible to verify the real parental norms 
and values that have been transmitted. However, the aim of the study was to 
detect possible discerning patterns between the answers of mothers with different 
employment behaviour, based on their various values and attitudes. Therefore, I 
compared the answers of relative traditional mothers with the answers of more 
egalitarian mothers. 
Indeed, mothers with more egalitarian attitudes responded differently than 
their traditional/adaptive counterparts. Their narratives stood out due to the 
memories of the strong presence of their mothers, who were often the sole 
provider, and could play a dominant role at home, or else were unsatisfied with 
their traditional mother role. In addition, their stories included relatively many 
examples of sudden and/or unwanted family happenings. For example, for 
various reasons one third of the mothers were raised by single mothers, who often 
were the main provider of their family income. Other stories of mothers with 
egalitarian attitudes revealed rather out of the ordinary family situations – such as 
going to boarding school, having an alcoholic father or a mentally-ill mother, and 

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Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers  
198 
other dramatic occurrences with family members. This meant that these women 
were more or less ‘forced’ to grow up as independent young women very quickly.  
This is directly opposed to mothers with traditional/adaptive gender attitudes, 
who regularly emphasised that they come from warm families, and often 
recounted many happy and pleasant childhood memories.  
The quantitative results revealed some more discrepancies between the 
primary socialization processes of mothers with traditional/adaptive attitudes and 
those of mothers with egalitarian gender attitudes. For example, egalitarian values 
and attitudes were related to the presence of a mother with a positive work 
orientation (she worked with pleasure or would have liked to have worked), 
which confirms earlier research on this subject (Barret and White, 2002; De Valk, 
2008; Trent and South, 1992; Van Wel and Knijn, 2006). And in support of social 
stratification theory, a more objective background characteristic – the educational 
level of the respondent’s  mother – is also significantly related to a mother’s 
general gender values: the higher educated her mother, the more egalitarian the 
respondent’s own general gender values. This effect adds up to that of the 
respondent’s own educational level. Sanders (1997) previously showed that a 
higher-educated mother directly affected her daughter’s own employment (also 
Cloïn, 2010). In this study I could not trace this direct effect, so therefore it is 
interesting to find that the effect still persists indirectly in her daughters’ labour 
market behaviour, since it is assumed in this study that values can be viewed as 
elements behind personal attitudes and preferences (Ajzen, 1991; Becker et al., 
1983; Van Deth and Scarbrough, 1995). Moreover, the results indicate that (at 
least) part of mothers’ general gender values (and thus their ideal family lives) 
have a robust source in childhood.  
In relation to mothers’ current work attitudes, it appeared relevant again to 
observe what is absent in mothers’ childhood chronicles. A significant parental 
message in relation to their daughter’s economic independence and professional 
perspective appeared present in the youth stories of mothers with egalitarian 
attitudes, and was remarkably lacking in the youth stories of most 
traditional/adaptive mothers. If mothers have not been stimulated (verbally or 
mentally) to consider their professional lives, it appears difficult to overcome this 
later in life. The effect of the parental message of economic independence on 
mothers’ own adherence to financial autonomy was also found in the quantitative 
analysis; undoubtedly the message serves as a guide for life.  
Overall, the findings indicate that intergenerational influence mainly occurs 
via the  transmission (both intentional and unintentional) of mental and verbal 
symbols, especially diffused by the mother. These associations could come from 
a satisfied and consenting traditional mother figure, or else from the completely 
opposite associations of a reluctant and dissatisfied mother, or else from 
independent mothers who went their own way.  These different origins between 
mothers with traditional/adaptive gender attitudes and egalitarian attitudes, 
enhance our understanding of contemporary diverse gender and work attitudes 
among Dutch mothers. Mothers’ gender values and attitudes have not developed 

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