Gender role attitudes and expectations for marriage

Abstract

12.00 Changing gender roles are impacting how employment and household/childcare responsibilities are shared within a marriage. With evolving gender roles, the potential benefits and disadvantages of marriage, related to marital quality/satisfaction, may be changing for both women and men (Amato, Johnson, Booth, & Rogers, 2003, Kurdek, 2005). To further explore the issue of gender roles and changing perspectives on marriage, students (106 females, 38 males) at a public university in Texas participated in an on-line Qualtrics survey assessing attitudes towards egalitarian/traditional marriage (adapted from Deutsch, Kokot, & Binder, 2007), child-rearing responsibilities (adapted from Gere and Helwig, 2012), traditional/transcendent gender roles (Baber & Tucker, 2006), and hostile/benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 2001). Participants rated an egalitarian marriage as most likely; 51% of participants rated both spouses working full time/dividing child care equally as “likely”/“very likely.” Although men, compared to women, were more likely to agree with working full-time while their partner assumed primary childcare/household responsibilities ( χ 2 =19.01, p <.00l), 27% of the men rated this “very unlikely.” For the companion item, women were more likely than men to agree with taking time off work for childcare while their partner worked full-time, ( χ 2 =15.86, p <.002), with 15% of the women rating this “very unlikely” (although 16% rated it “very likely”). Females agreed more than males ( t =-2.03, p <.05) with traditional child care attitudes; traditional child care attitudes correlated positively with both hostile ( r =.37, p <.001) and benevolent ( r =.39, p <.001) sexism but negatively with gender transcendence ( r =-.29, p =.001). As the institution of marriage changes in the U.S., moving away from “his” and “hers” marriages to more egalitarian marriages, the gender discrepancy in marital satisfaction is likely to continue decreasing, with more flexibility in marital styles and options continuing to increase. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} 12.00 Changing gender roles are impacting how employment and household/childcare responsibilities are shared within a marriage. With evolving gender roles, the potential benefits and disadvantages of marriage, related to marital quality/satisfaction, may be changing for both women and men (Amato, Johnson, Booth, & Rogers, 2003, Kurdek, 2005). To further explore the issue of gender roles and changing perspectives on marriage, students (106 females, 38 males) at a public university in Texas participated in an on-line Qualtrics survey assessing attitudes towards egalitarian/traditional marriage (adapted from Deutsch, Kokot, & Binder, 2007), child-rearing responsibilities (adapted from Gere and Helwig, 2012), traditional/transcendent gender roles (Baber & Tucker, 2006), and hostile/benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 2001). Participants rated an egalitarian marriage as most likely; 51% of participants rated both spouses working full time/dividing child care equally as “likely”/“very likely.” Although men, compared to women, were more likely to agree with working full-time while their partner assumed primary childcare/household responsibilities ( χ 2 =19.01, p <.00l), 27% of the men rated this “very unlikely.” For the companion item, women were more likely than men to agree with taking time off work for childcare while their partner worked full-time, ( χ 2 =15.86, p <.002), with 15% of the women rating this “very unlikely” (although 16% rated it “very likely”). Females agreed more than males ( t =-2.03, p <.05) with traditional child care attitudes; traditional child care attitudes correlated positively with both hostile ( r =.37, p <.001) and benevolent ( r =.39, p <.001) sexism but negatively with gender transcendence ( r =-.29, p =.001). As the institution of marriage changes in the U.S., moving away from “his” and “hers” marriages to more egalitarian marriages, the gender discrepancy in marital satisfaction is likely to continue decreasing, with more flexibility in marital styles and options continuing to increase. Gender Role Attitudes and Expectations for Marriage Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Table Normal; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Times New Roman; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}