Chapter 5 - The social origins of Dutch mothers’ gender values and ideal family life
147
Table 15. Standardized total effects of structural path analysis of Ideal Family Life
(belonging to table 14)
Egalitarian Ideal family life
1.
General Gender values
.400
2.
Education .218
3.
Partner present
-.369
4.
Age 1.038
5.
Age squared
-1.006
6.
Religiousness -.065
Source: Amos analysis of merged data from questionnaires: ‘Politics and Values’, ‘Work and
Schooling’, ‘Women and their social environment’, Liss Panel, Centerdata, University of Tilburg,
November 2010.
Hypothesis 2:
A mother’s gender values and ideal family life are influenced by parental
socialization during childhood.
In the second path model, the parental norms and values are included, along with
the educational level of the respondent’s parents as control variables. Firstly, the
respondent’s own educational level, her age and her religiousness are related to
her general gender values. Higher-educated mothers
have more egalitarian
general gender values. Secondly, several parental values – although certainly not
all – correspond with a mother’s general gender values and her ideal family life.
Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers
148
Table 16. Model 2: Structural path analysis of dependent variables Ideal family life
and General gender values
Egalitarian Ideal family
life
Egalitarian General gender
values
Beta
B (s.e.)
Beta
B (s.e.)
1.
General gender values
.400
2.114***
(.159)
-
2.
Education .107
.056***
(.016)
.259 .026***
(.003)
3.
Age .626
.051*
(.022)
1.012 .016***
(.005)
4.
Age2 -.592
-.055*
(.025)
-.950 -.017**
(.005)
5.
Partner present
-.307
-.236***
(.043)
n.s.
6.
Religiousness n.s.
-.163
-.022***
(.004)
7.
Education parents: mother
n.s.
.074
.010*
(.005)
8.
Message parents: work is a mean
to earn money
n.s. -.161
-.025**
(.008)
9.
Message parents: caring for others
is important
-.127 -.090*
(.037)
n.s.
10. Work oriented mother
.155 .110**
(.038)
.150 0.20**
(.008)
Intercept
.174
(.461)
-.095
(.105)
Squared Multiple corr. (R2) .303
.135
Degrees
of freedom
10
Bollen-stine bootstrap
p =.001
1.
As independent and dependent variable general gender values, including control variables and
primary socialization factors as independent variables.
2.
Beta: standardized regression coefficient.
3.
B: unstandardized regression coefficient.
4.
S.E.: standard error.
5.
*p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001
6.
Bollen-stine bootstrap is a measure for the goodness-of-fit in case of non normal data for a path
model. Based on this outcome the model can be accepted.
7.
Source: Amos analysis of merged data from questionnaires: ‘Politics and Values’, ‘Work and
Schooling’, ‘Women and their social environment’, Liss Panel, Centerdata, University of
Tilburg, November 2010.
Chapter 5 - The social origins of Dutch mothers’ gender values and ideal family life
149
Table 17. Standardized total effects of model 2 (belonging to table 16) of dependent
variable ideal family life
Egalitarian Ideal family
Life
1.
Gender values
.400
2.
Education .211
3.
Partner present
-.330
4.
Age 1.030
5.
Age squared
-.972
6.
Religiousness -.065
7.
Respondent’s mothers’ educational level
.030
8.
Work oriented mother
.215
9.
Message parents, caring for others is important
-.127
10. Message parents, work is a mean to earn money
-.065
Source: Amos analysis of merged data from questionnaires: ‘Politics and Values’, ‘Work and
Schooling’, ‘Women and their social environment’, Liss Panel, Centerdata, University of Tilburg,
November 2010.
Mothers who have received the parental message that work is above all a means
by which to earn money, which is a rather instrumental view of work and one
which does not appealing to one’s intrinsic work motivation, tend to have more
traditional gender values. A mother who, as a juvenile,
experienced her own
mother enjoying her work, or else wishing to have had paid work (28 per cent of
the mothers), endorses more egalitarian general gender values.
In addition, the educational level of a respondent’s mother is related to the
respondent’s general gender values, which also demonstrates the significance of
social stratification theory. The educational level of the father has no additional
effect.
A mother’s ideal family life appears also to be directly
affected by primary
socialization. Mothers who recall the rather traditional and gender-specific
message that caring for others is important (32 per cent of the mothers) tend to
prefer a more traditional ideal family life, independent of their general gender
values. And a mother who, as a juvenile, experienced that her own mother
enjoyed her work or wishing to have had paid work also endorses a more
egalitarian family life, making the total standardized effect of the respondent’s
mother’s work attitude rather large.
Remarkably, the variable covering whether the respondent’s mother was in
paid work or not does not have a significant effect on a mother’s gender values or
ideal family life. This finding indicates that it is
the parental transmission of
attitudes, rather than parental behaviour, that is most salient in analysing adults’
values and ideals, though it does so subtly and unintentionally (also Moen et al.,
1997).