Gender Cultures and the Division of Labour in Contemporary Europe: A Cross-National Perspective

Abstract

Drawing on the vast literature concerned with the cultural aspects of gender, this article explores the ways in which individuals living in different national contexts value the ideal of a dual earner/dual carer couple at the expense of the male breadwinner model. Via a comparison of fifteen European countries included in the Family and Gender Roles module of the 2002 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), three attitudinal patterns were identified: the unequal sharing that portrays a male breadwinner norm, the familistic unequal that also endorses a gender-segregated arrangement though with a greater wish for men's involvement in housework and childcare, and the dual earner/dual carer model, which, despite covering nearly 40 per cent of respondents, is very unequally distributed across countries. It is proposed that societal gender cultures are of major importance to an understanding of cross-national variations in attitudes and their relationship with the real forms of gender division of labour. The connection between couples' attitudes and practices is thus examined in order to assess the extent to which support for the dual earner/dual carer model encourages couples to engage in more equal sharing of paid and unpaid work. Findings reveal the importance of the normative dimension insofar as the impact of attitudes on practices seems to depend on the historical pathways of gender cultures and the ways in which they underpin welfare policies and female employment.

Fathers on Leave Alone in Portugal: Lived Experiences and Impact of Forerunner Fathers

“…Most men vehemently reject the old ideal of a distant and authoritarian father, criticize the former generations of fathers, and value the norm of the involved father who participates in the daily responsibilities of parental care, education and emotional involvement. Fatherhood also emerges as a key dimension in the building of new forms of masculinity: to a great extent, in Portuguese society, the reconfi guring of the father fi gure has been a powerful driving force in challenging traditional masculinities (Aboim and Marinho 2006 ;Aboim 2010 ).…”

Gender specific effects of financial and housework contributions on depression: A multi-actor study among three household types in Belgium

“…Rosenfield (1992), on the other hand, did not measure mental health in terms of depression, but rather focused on demoralisation, sadness, anxiety, self-esteem, hope/helplessness and insomnia. Second, the past decennia are characterized by a decreasing amount of male breadwinner families and increasingly more female autonomy (Aboim, 2010). In addition, the inconclusiveness of studies about the association between women's employment status and mental health clearly indicates that both being a housewife or a working woman are characterized by particular advantages (Treas et al, 2011).…”

“…one-and-a-half-earner households are considered as a modern variant of male breadwinner households (Aboim, 2010), men's preferences for women's employment in both households may be alike (Ross et al, 1983). In one-anda-half-earner households, the traditional pattern of the male provider and the female homemaker is eroded.…”

“…The most common way of working part-time in Belgium is half-time jobs of around 15-29 hours a week (Hakim, 1997), based on working full-time for fixed days of the week with the other days off (Anxo et al, 2007). Because of this large proportion of part-time employment, both dual-earner households (with both the man and woman working full-time) and one-and-a-half-earner households (a variation of the male breadwinner model, where the man remains the main breadwinner and the woman works part-time) are strongly represented in Belgium (Flanders) (Aboim, 2010;Franco & Winqvist, 2002).…”

Discussion and Conclusions

“…Gender may be defi ned as "the division of people into two differentiated groups, 'men' and 'women', and the organization of the major aspects of society along these binaries" (Davis et al 2006 : 55). Gender cultural models related to work-family balance have shifted over the last few decades and become more pluralized (Aboim 2010 ;Pfau-Effi nger 2004 ) but attachment to the male-breadwinner/female-carer model has not disappeared and still represents a minority pattern even in countries with the most egalitarian policies (Wall 2007 ). Sustained across many contemporary normative and institutional contexts, it infl uences workplace support and barriers, as mentioned above, as well as mothers' and fathers' perceptions of gender roles in the care of young children.…”